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of  the 

University  of  California 

Los  Angeles 

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This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


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HOV  l" 

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L-9-15»t-8/24 


THE  COURT  OF  KING  ARTHUR 


BY   THE    SAME   AUTHOR 

Each  I  vol.,  I2itio,  Illustrated  by  SIDNEY  R. 
BURLEIGH.     Price,  $1.50 

THE   KNIGHTS  OF   THE   ROUND   TABLE 

THE  COURT  OF   KING  ARTHUR 

THE  WAGNER  STORY  BOOK 


LIKE   THE   HALO  OF  A   SAINT." 


THE    COURT 
OF    KING    ARTHUR 


STORIES  FROM  THE  LAND  OF 
THE  ROUND  TABLE 


BY 

HENRY:  FRGST 


ILLUSTRATED  BY  SYDNEY  RICHMOND  BURLEIGH 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
1897 


COPYRIGHT,  1896,  BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


TZ 

«" 

A  t 


MY  AUNT 

TTofiefiefb  CofRns 


MY  EARLIEST  OOXPAXION  AND 

GUIDE  IN  LANDS  OF 

WONDERS 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

MCI 
How  WE  CAME  TO  LONDON i 

CHAPTER  II 
THE  NEW  KING  AT  ST.  PAUL'S.  7 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  ROUND  TABLE 


' 


CHAPTER  IV 
OT  GALAHAD,  BUT  LANCELOT 64 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  KITCHEN  BOY 83 

« 

CHAPTER   VI 
THE  SPARROW-HAWK iao 

CHAPTER  VII 
Ox  THE  WRONG  SIDE  OF  THE  SEVERN 145 


viii  Contents 


CHAPTER   VIII 

PAGE 

THE  PATHS  THAT  ENID  RODE, 171 


CHAPTER   IX 
A  LITTLE  JOURNEY  IN  CORNWALL, 192 

CHAPTER   X 
WHO  THE  KING  REALLY  WAS, 206 

CHAPTER   XI 
SOME  LITTLE  ADVENTURES  OF  LANCELOT,        .       .        .  222 

CHAPTER  XII 
THE  CHIME  OF  THE  SEA 239 

CHAPTER   XIII 

How  THE  SCABBARD  WAS  LOST 251 

CHAPTER  XIV 
KING  ARTHUR'S  GRAVESTONE,  ......  272 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


"LIKE  THE  HALO  OF  A  SADPT,*1 


"  THE  GREATEST  CHURCH  OF  LOXDOS. 

PAUL'S  OK  KOT." 7 

THE  FIELD  OF  THE  ROCSD  TABLE,                ...  37 

THE  ESGUSH  AKD  THE  f^*tarr_      .....  64 

"NOT  AH  HOTEL," 83 

"  FOR  A  WHOLE  TEAK  HE  WAS  THERE  Of  THE  ETTCHEX," 

Fmdmg  go 

THE  BRIDGE  AT  CARDIFF, 120 

THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  SPARROW-HAWK,   .        .      Facing  138 

"  THERE  WE  SAT  OR  RAGS  AKD  COILS  OF  ROPE,"   .        .  145 

"  BESIDE  HIM  WAS  A  DOG  AS  BIG  AS  A  HORSE,"   Facing  156 

In  DEVONSHIRE. 171 

Is  CORNWALL, 192 

THE  CASTLE  OF  TDFTAGEL, 206 

"THEY  CAME  NEARER  TO  us  AKD  GATHERED  AROGXD 


-  RAMPARTS  LIKE  A  FLIGHT  OF  STAIRS,'*         ...  222 

THE  SILEXT  TOWER. 239 

THE  ROCKS  OF  TCCTAGEL,       ....      Facing  242 

THE  KEEPER  OF  THE  KEY, 251 

Krsc  ARTHUR'S  GRAVESTONE, 272 


THE  COURT  OF  KING  ARTHUR 


CHAPTER  I 
HOW  WE  CAME  TO  LONDON 

HELEN'S  mother  said  that  I  might  go,  too, 
if  I  liked,  and  Helen  said  that  I  most  go,  too. 

This  Helen  is  a  very  young  woman,  with  an 
extravagant  fondness  for  stories.  If  you  ever 
chance  to  meet  her  or  anybody  like  her,  never 
let  her  find  out  that  yon  can  tell  stories  or 
that  yon  know  anything  about  stories.  That 
is,  if  your  time  is  worth  anything  and  if  you 
do  not  enjoy  telling  stories  for  a  very  large 
part  of  it.  Because,  if  you  do  let  her  know, 
yon  will  never  have  any  more  peace.  As  for 
me,  my  time  is  not  worth  anything  and  I  en- 
joy telling  stories  to  any  extent,  so  it  doesn't 
matter. 

But  about  this  question  of  my  going,  too. 


2  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

Helen  and  her  mother  had  taken  it  into  their 
sensible  heads  to  go  abroad  for  the  summer. 
By  listening  carefully  to  all  they  said,  when- 
ever I  got  a  chance,  I  could  not  find  out  that 
they  had  any  particular  plans  beyond  that. 
Neither  of  them  had  ever  been  abroad  before, 
and  they  seemed  to  have  a  sort  of  notion  that 
abroad  meant  Europe,  and  not  any  part  of  it, 
but  the  whole  of  it.  I  heard  them  talking  now 
and  then  of  the  Scotch  Highlands,  of  the  Al- 
hambra,  of  the  Rhine,  of  the  Irish  lakes,  of  the 
Alps,  and  of  seeing  Naples  and  then  dying, 
and  I  felt  sure  that  I  should  die  before  I  saw 
Naples  if  I  tried  to  go  to  half  the  places  where 
they  thought  they  were  going. 

That  was  why  I  did  not  care  to  say  that  I 
would  go  till  I  knew  just  how  much  trouble 
I  was  likely  to  get  into.  It  was  not  an  easy 
thing,  by  any  means,  for  me  to  pretend  that  I 
did  not  care  much  whether  I  went  or  not. 
The  memory  of  that  glorious  Rhine,  with  its 
towering  banks  green  and  gray  with  vines  and 
castles,  and  of  those  calm,  white-topped,  giant 
hills  of  Switzerland,  so  restful  in  their  majesty, 
stirred  up  longings  in  me  that  I  should  not 
have  wished  Helen  and  her  mother  to  know, 
till  I  had  quite  made  up  my  mind  to  go  with 
them.  Still  more  than  these,  the  grassy  hill- 
side pastures,  the  fields  full  of  scarlet  poppies, 
the  deep  green  hedges,  and  the  smooth  rivers 


How   We  Came  to  London  3 

of  England  drew  me  toward  them.  They 
called  to  me  and  said :  "  Come  to  us  again 
and  be  glad  that  you  are  here  to  see  us  and 
that  we  are  here  to  be  seen." 

I  can  never  think  of  these  lands  as  real  lands, 
where  real  people  live  and  work,  and  are  weary, 
and  have  real  cares  and  troubles.  They  are 
all  story  lands,  poet  lands,  fairy  lands  to  me. 
I  never  saw  them — and  I  am  very  glad  of  it — 
till  I  had  known  them  long  in  books  of  old 
tales  and  in  songs  and  in  books  of  newer  tales. 
And  so  the}-  came  to  be  to  me,  and  they  will 
always  be,  the  countries  of  dim  old  kings,  of 
knights  with  flashing  arms  and  streaming 
plumes,  of  ladies  who  looked  down  on  them 
from  the  walls  of  castles,  of  giants  and  of 
dwarfs ;  of  stranger  creatures  still,  of  wizards 
and  witches,  of  men  who  changed  to  wolves  and 
women  who  changed  to  swans,  of  misty  gods 
who  rode  on  the  storm  winds,  and  heroes  whom 
no  sword  could  wound.  Of  course  I  know 
that  the  people  there  are  real,  and  of  course  I 
have  seen  them  working  and  playing  and  buy- 
ing and  selling  and  quarrelling  together,  but 
they  did  not  look  real — only  like  a  part  of  the 
stories. 

And  not  the  least  charm  of  these  countries 
to  me  was  that  they  were  across  the  ocean  and 
that  we  must  make  a  voyage  to  reach  them. 
For  of  all  the  people  and  the  things  that  I  love, 


4  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

I  love  none,  except  a  few  of  my  friends,  better 
than  ships.  I  count  ships  among  the  people 
that  I  love,  not  among  the  things.  Ships  are 
noble,  strong,  beautiful,  happy,  living  beings. 
It  is  absurd  to  think  that  they  are  anything 
else.  When  one  of  them  has  taken  hundreds 
of  us  into  herself  and  is  bearing  us  from  land 
to  land,  when  she  is  driving  along  with  us,  find- 
ing her  way  alone  through  the  darkness,  with 
nothing  but  the  stars  above  her  and  nothing 
but  endless  water  all  around — don't  tell  me 
that  she  is  nothing  but  a  dead  machine!  I 
have  waked  up  in  the  night  and  felt  the  creat- 
ure's great,  hot  heart  beating,  and  I  know. 
And  when  she  is  rushing  on  and  on,  by  day 
and  night,  trying  to  cross  the  sea  quicker  than 
any  other  ship  has  ever  crossed  it ;  when  she 
is  trying  to  bring  two  great  countries  nearer 
together  than  they  have  ever  been  before,  do 
you  want  me  to  believe  that  she  does  not  know 
what  she  is  doing,  that  only  the  captain  on  the 
bridge  and  the  man  at  the  wheel  and  the  man 
at  the  engine  know  ?  Not  a  bit  of  it.  I  have 
stood  at  her  prow  and  have  seen  her  joy  in  her 
plunging  and  rising  and  sweeping  through  the 
waves;  I  have  seen  her  dash  the  water  into 
pearls  by  day  and  into  glowing  flame  by  night. 
Oh,  she  knows  what  she  is  doing  better  than 
anybody  could  tell  her. 

So  you  see  I  really  wanted  to  go  very  much 


How   We  Came  to  London  5 

indeed.  And  when  I  happened  to  overhear 
some  little  remark  about  the  Parthenon  I 
thought  that  the  time  had  come  to  decide. 
"Could  you  give  me  any  sort  of  notion,"  I 
asked,  "  whether  you  are  really  going  to  the 
Parthenon  or  to  Ultima  Thule,  or  where?  Be- 
cause it  might  help  me  to  tell  whether  I  can  go 
with  you." 

"  We  don't  know  in  the  least  where  we  are 
going,"  Helen's  mother  answered  ;  "  we  only 
talk  about  what  happens  to  come  into  our 
heads.  If  you  will  come  with  us,  we  will  go 
just  wherever  you  like." 

"  Wherever  I  like  ?  Do  you  know  what  sort 
of  promise  you  are  making  ?  " 

•  Why,  it  doesn't  make  any  difference  to  us 
where  we  go,"  said  Helen's  mother,  again,  "  and 
if  you  have  any  choice,  we  may  as  well  go  where 
you  want  to  go  as  anywhere  else.  Only,  of 
course,  you  must  let  me  go  to  Paris.  If  you 
will  say  that  I  may  go  to  Paris  just  when  I 
like,  you  may  plan  everything  else  yourself." 

"  I  say  so,  then,  since  you  have  given  me  this 
sudden  authority." 

"  Then  it  is  agreed,  and  you  will  go  with  us  ?  " 

"  I  will  go  with  you." 

I  don't  know  why  it  is  that  Americans  who 
go  to  England  always  make  a  straight  line  for 
London.  There  are  plenty  of  other  beautiful 
and  interesting  places  that  they  ought  to  see 


6          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

and  that  they  mean  to  see.  Often,  indeed,  they 
leave  London  again  and  go  straight  back  on 
their  own  tracks.  It  seems  strange,  but  it  was 
not  for  us  to  break  through  so  firmly  fixed  a 
custom. 
And  so  we  came  to  London. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  NEW  KING  AT  ST.   PAUL'S 

THERE  are  many  good  books  that  will  tell 
you  all  sorts  of  useful  and  delightful  things 
about  London,  if  you  care  to  know  them. 
You  will  not  find  them  here,  for  they  have  all 
been  told  much  better  than  I  could  tell  them. 
We  saw  as  much  of  London  as  we  could ;  it 
would  take  nothing  less  than  a  lifetime  to  see  it 
all.  It  happened  one  day  that  we  had  been 
wandering  around  and  about  and  up  and  down 
in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral.  We  had  been  along 
the  aisles  and  down  into  the  crypt  and  had 
seen  the  tombs  of  great  men  till  we  were  tired 
of  them.  We  had  climbed  up  to  the  Whis- 
pering Gallery  and  the  Stone  Gallery  and 
the  Golden  Gallery,  and  we  had  gone  higher 
still,  till  we  were  not  sure  whether  we  were  in 
the  ball  or  the  cross.  We  have  never  been 
quite  sure  since.  We  were  sure,  when  we 
came  down,  that  we  felt  a  trifle  tired  after  so 


8  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

much  climbing,  and  that  we  wanted  to  rest  for 
a  few  minutes  on  one  of  the  benches  outside 
the  church,  where  we  could  watch  the  streams 
of  carriages  and  carts  and  omnibuses  and  peo- 
ple going  past,  and,  nearer  to  us,  the  fountain 
and  the  flocks  of  doves  all  about  the  walks. 

"And  now  that  we  have  nothing  better  to 
do,"  I  said,  "  do  you  want  to  hear  a  little  his- 
tory and  then  a  story?" 

"  I  don't  care  about  the  history,"  Helen  an- 
swered. 

"  But  you  must  hear  the  history  before  you 
can  hear  the  story.  You  can't  have  any  cake 
till  you  eat  your  bread." 

"  Then  I  will  eat  my  bread.  There  isn't  very 
much  of  it,  is  there?" 

"  No,  only  a  little.  Very  well,  then.  There 
was  a  time,  more  than  a  thousand  years  ago, 
when  this  London  and  this  England  were  not 
by  any  means  the  good  places  to  live  in  that 
they  are  now.  There  was  no  good  queen  up 
the  river  at  Windsor,  and  there  was  no  castle 
for  her  to  live  in  if  she  had  been  there.  Worse 
than  this,  there  was  no  Parliament  at  West- 
minster. Worst  of  all,  there  were  plenty  of 
lords,  who  did  little  but  misrule  the  people  and 
fight  among  themselves.  There  was  no  one 
above  the  lords ;  no  one  could  rule  the  whole 
country,  though  there  were  many  who  would 
have  liked  to  try.  There  was  a  King  of  Scot- 


The  New  King  at  St.  Paul's         9 

land,  and  there  was  a  King  of  Ireland,  and  there 
was  a  King  of  North  Wales,  and  a  King  of 
Cornwall,  and  one  of  Cameliard,  wherever  that 
was,  and  one  of  the  Out  Isles,  wherever  they 
were.  There  were  a  dozen  or  twenty  more 
kings,  perhaps,  scattered  about,  one  here  and 
one  there,  but  they  were  no  better  and  no  more 
powerful  than  the  lords.  Indeed,  the  more 
power  any  of  them  had  the  worse  it  was  for 
their  people ;  and  of  all  England  together 
there  was  no  king  at  alL 

"  There  had  been  kings  of  England  once, 
but  the  last  of  them  had  been  dead  for  a  long 
time  and  he  had  left  nobody  to  take  his  place. 
Uther  Pendragon  was  far  from  being  a  good 
man,  but  he  was  not  a  bad  sort  of  king,  for 
those  times.  The  most  of  the  kings  and  lords 
were  robbers,  and  the  people  expected  it,  but 
when  there  was  one  robber  greater  than  all  the 
rest  he  kept  the  others  down  a  little,  and  it  was 
better  for  the  people  than  when  there  were  a 
hundred  robbers,  each  one  plundering  them 
for  himself.  That  was  the  way  after  Uther 
Pendragon  died.  Every  lord  tried  to  be  a 
greater  thief  than  every  other  lord,  and  every 
one  of  them,  secretly  or  openly,  hoped  that  he 
might  grow  great  enough  to  make  himself  king. 

"  There  were  not  many  cities  then,  and  the 
people  lived  in  little  towns  and  villages,  far 
away  from  one  another,  where  the  lords  and 


io          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

their  armed  men  could  do  with  them  what  they 
pleased.  So  they  made  the  poor  people  work 
at  building  their  castles.  They  gave  them  no 
pay  and  they  left  them  no  time  to  keep  their 
shops  or  till  their  fields,  so  that  while  the  men 
worked  their  wives  and  their  children  starved. 
Then  they  would  take  the  land  itself  and  drive 
the  people  away  from  it  to  die  of  hunger  or  to 
steal  and  be  hanged  for  it.  If  they  heard  that 
any  common  man  had  saved  a  little  money, 
they  put  him  in  a  dungeon  where  there  were 
snakes  and  toads,  and  kept  him  there  till  he 
promised  to  show  them  where  he  had  hidden 
it.  Then  the  lords  fought  with  one  another, 
and  brought  bands  of  armed  men  into  one  an- 
other's lands,  and  trampled  down  the  fields  of 
grain,  and  burned  the  houses,  and  killed  the 
people.  And  perhaps  that  was  the  best  thing 
for  them. 

"  So  the  people  loved  to  remember  Uther 
Pendragon,  and  wished,  but  scarcely  hoped, 
that  there  might  be  another  king  as  good  as 
he.  They  sat  by  their  poor  fires  in  the  winter 
nights,  and  perhaps  some  of  the  old  men  told 
them  how,  long  ago,  the  Romans  came  from  far 
over  the  sea  and  over  the  land  and  conquered 
the  country  and  kept  it  for  many  years.  '  They 
were  cruel  fighters,  the  Romans,'  the  old  men 
said,  '  but  they  kept  some  kind  of  order  in  the 
land,  and  it  was  better  than  this.' 


The  New  King  at  St.  Paul's        1 1 

"  Then  they  told  how  the  heathen  Saxons 
came,  after  the  Romans  had  gone.  Sometimes 
they  drove  the  people  out  of  their  houses,  and 
sometimes  they  made  peace  with  the  kings, 
who  were  strong  men  in  those  days.  They 
were  usually  bad  men,  too,  but  it  was  better  than 
this.  And  then  the  old  men  told  of  Uther  Pen- 
dragon.  «  He  was  the  best  of  them  all,'  they 
said.  •  Some  of  you  younger  men  can  remem- 
ber him  ;  it  was  not  so  many  years  ago  that  he 
died.  But  he  left  us  no  son  to  rule  as  he  had 
ruled,  and  there  is  no  hope  now.'  And  they 
wiped  their  eyes  with  the  backs  of  their  hard 
hands,  though  it  was  long  since  there  had  been 
any  such  frivolous  things  as  tears  there. 

"  There  were  some  of  the  lords,  no  doubt,  who 
were  not  so  bad  as  the  others,  but  it  was  not 
easy  in  those  days  to  be  a  good  man  and  a  lord 
at  the  same  time.  You  see,  if  a  lord  happened 
to  be  a  good  man,  he  would  not  steal  from  the 
others,  but  they  would  all  steal  from  him  just 
the  same  as  from  anybody  else.  So  he  always 
lost  as  much  as  the  others  and  never  got  so 
much  back,  and  in  that  way  he  was  likely  to 
grow  poor  pretty  fast 

Yet  there  were  a  few  such  men.  And  so, 
in  the  bright  summer  days,  as  they  worked  to- 
gether in  the  fields,  the  poor  people  would  now 
and  then  talk  a  little  more  hopefully.  They 
felt  more  cheerful  in  the  summer,  I  suppose, 


12  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

because  then  they  were  only  hungry,  instead 
of  hungry  and  cold  both,  as  they  were  in  the 
winter. 

" '  There  is  old  Sir  Ector  riding  by,  with  his 
two  sons,'  one  of  the  younger  men  would  say  ; 
'  if  all  the  lords  were  like  them,  it  would  be  bet- 
ter for  all  of  us.' 

"'Yes,'  some  old  man  would  answer,  'Sir 
Ector  was  one  of  Uther  Pendragon's  men.  The 
old  King  gave  him  all  those  lands  that  he  has 
around  London ;  he  is  rich  enough ;  he  does 
not  need  to  steal  from  the  poor.'  The  old 
men,  you  see,  who  remembered  the  better  days, 
were  the  ones  who  were  most  hopeless  and 
bitter. 

"  '  Does  not  need  to  steal  from  the  poor  ! '  one 
of  the  women  would  say  ;  '  he  would  not  steal. 
He  is  a  good  man,  and  his  wife  is  a  good  wom- 
an. When  my  mother  was  sick  last  winter 
our  house  was  so  cold  and  damp  that  she  would 
have  died,  but  Sir  Ector's  wife  heard  about  her 
and  she  let  me  bring  her  to  the  castle,  and  the 
servants  took  care  of  her  till  she  got  well.' 

"'Yes,'  the  old  man  might  say  again, 'and 
what  happened  then?  When  your  own  lord 
heard  of  it  he  went  to  Sir  Ector  and  said  that 
he  must  pay  him  money  for  taking  one  of  his 
people  off  his  land,  and,  when  Sir  Ector  called 
his  men  and  drove  him  away,  your  lord  sent 
his  men  to  burn  your  house  for  revenge.  What 


The  New  King  at  St.  Paul's        13 

good  did  it  do  you  or  your  mother  to  save  her 
life?' 

"Nobody  could  answer  such  a  question  as 
this,  but  still  somebody  else  would  say  that 
there  might  be  better  times  if  only  such  a  man 
as  Sir  Ector  could  be  King  of  England,  and 
one  of  his  sons  after  him.  And  the  old  man 
would  growl  again  and  say:  'Which  of  his 
sons?  It  would  be  Kay,  because  he  is  the 
older,  and  Kay  is  a  harsh,  surly  boy ;  he  would 
be  as  bad  as  any  of  these  lords  are  now/ 

" '  Yet  they  say  Kay  is  strong  and  brave/  one 
of  the  younger  men  would  answer,  *  and  he  is 
to  be  made  a  knight  next  Hallowmas.  But  I 
like  his  brother  Arthur  better.  He  is  as  kind 
and  generous  as  his  father.  And  I  have  seen 
him  playing  with  the  village  boys,  just  as  if  he 
were  not  a  lord's  son,  and  he  could  run  faster 
than  any  of  them  and  throw  a  stone  and  shoot 
an  arrow  farther  and  straighter  than  any  of 
them/ 

" «  What  is  the  use  to  talk  about  them  ? '  the 
old  man  would  say  at  last.  '  They  can  do  noth- 
ing against  these  robbers  that  build  their  cas- 
tles all  over  the  land,  and  they  do  not  try  to  do 
anything.  And  there  is  that  old  fool  Merlin. 
Why  does  he  never  do  anything  for  the  peo- 
pie?' 

" '  How  do  you  make  out  Merlin  a  fool  ?  They 
say  he  knows  more  than  any  one  else  in  the 


14  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

world,  and  he  can  do  wonderful  things  by 
magic.' 

" «  That  is  just  why  I  call  him  a  fool.  He  can 
do  wonderful  things,  and  yet  he  never  does 
anything.  Is  he  not  a  fool,  if  he  knows  so 
much  and  could  do  so  much  for  the  people  and 
for  the  country,  and  yet  does  nothing  at  all  ?'  " 

"  Is  this  the  story  or  the  history  ?  "  Helen 
asked. 

"  This  is  the  story." 

"  I  thought  it  sounded  more  like  a  story. 
Where  did  the  history  leave  off?" 

"  I  am  afraid  I  can't  tell  you  exactly.  You 
see,  the  history  and  the  story  are  so  mixed  up 
together  in  the  most  of  this  that  I  have  been 
telling  you  that  it  might  not  be  quite  safe  to 
say  that  any  of  it  was  entirely  history.  But 
there  is  this  strange  thing  about  many  of  these 
old  tales  that  I  am  just  beginning  to  tell  you: 
the  people  who  like  history  better  than  stories 
generally  think  that  they  are  all  stories  and 
nothing  else,  and  the  people  who  like  stories 
better  try  to  believe  that  there  is  a  good  deal 
of  history  in  them.  When  you  have  heard 
them  I  am  sure  you  will  want  to  believe  that 
they  are  all  true.  That  is  because  you  like 
stories  better  than  history. 

"  But  now  for  the  story.  It  was  this  same 
Merlin — this  old  fool,  who  could  do  so  much 
and  did  so  little — who  had  scarcely  thought  of 


The  New  King  at  SL  PanTs        15 

anything  all  these  long,  terrible  years  but  of 
helping  England  and  the  poor  people  in  it.  He 
was  a  strange  man,  this  Merlin.  He  was  an 
old  man,  and  people  said  that  he  knew  every- 
thing that  ever  had  been  and  everything  that 
ever  should  be.  Nobody  knew  who  his  father 
was.  There  was  nothing  so  very  wonderful 
about  that,  but  some  said  that  he  never  had 
any  father,  and  there  was  something  wonderful 
about  that.  Others  said  that  his  father  was 
not  a  man,  but  a  spirit  of  the  air,  and  that  that 
was  why  he  knew  so  much.  He  could  take  any 
shape  he  chose,  they  said.  Now  and  then  some, 
body  would  tell  how  he  had  met  a  child  or  a 
young  man  or  a  beggar,  and  how  the  child  or 
the  young  man  or  the  beggar  had  told  him  of 
strange  things  that  were  soon  to  happen,  and 
then  had  vanished.  Then  he  knew  that  it  was 
Mertin,  who  had  chosen  to  take  some  other 
shape  than  his  own,  and  always  the  things  that 
Merlin  said  proved  to  be  true. 

«  Merlin  had  been  the  friend  of  Uther  Pen- 
dragon.  The  people  could  remember  wonder- 
ful things  that  he  had  done  for  the  old  King, 
and  that  was  why  they  thought  it  strange  that 
he  did  nothing  now.  But  Merlin  had  his  own 
reasons  for  waiting.  He  knew  what  he  had  to 
do  when  the  time  came.  And  now  he  knew 
that  the  time  had  come.  Just  when  another  of 
those  cruel,  cold,  hungry  winters  was  coming 


1 6  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

upon  the  people,  Merlin  went  to  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury. 

"  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  was  a  wise 
and  good  man.  He  was  at  the  head  of  the 
Church  for  all  England,  and  he  was  the  only 
man  who  was  at  the  head  of  anything  for  all 
England.  No  doubt  that  was  why  Merlin  went 
to  him.  '  It  is  time,'  said  Merlin,  '  to  find  a 
king  for  England.' 

"  '  Merlin,'  the  Archbishop  answered,  '  these 
wicked  lords  are  killing  all  the  people  and 
spoiling  all  the  land.  What  can  we  do  ?  How 
shall  we  find  a  king  ?  ' 

"  *  It  is  you  who  must  find  him,'  said  Merlin. 
'  Will  you  do  exactly  what  I  tell  you  and  not 
ask  me  why  ? ' 

"  People  who  know  everything  never  like  to 
answer  questions.  It  is  most  unfortunate,  too. 
The  rest  of  the  world  might  learn  so  much 
from  them. 

" '  Merlin,'  said  the  Archbishop,  '  some  say 
that  you  are  the  son  of  an  evil  spirit.  Yet  you 
come  into  my  church  and  you  are  not  afraid  of 
the  cross,  or  the  holy  water,  or  any  of  the  holy 
things.  That  is  not  like  the  son  of  an  evil 
spirit,  and  I  have  never  known  you  to  do  any- 
thing but  good.  I  will  do  what  you  tell  me, 
and  if  you  do  not  wish  me  to  know  why,  I  will 
not  ask.' 

" '  Then,'  said  Merlin,  *  send  to  all  the  great 


The  New  King  at  St.  Paul's       17 

lords  of  England  and  bid  them  come  together 
in  London  at  Christmas.  Tell  them  that  when 
they  are  met  it  shall  be  shown  to  them  who  is 
their  rightful  king/ 

"As  soon  as  Merlin  had  said  this  he  was 
gone.  The  Archbishop  did  not  see  him  go. 
He  only  looked  at  the  place  where  Merlin  had 
been  and  saw  that  there  was  nobody  there. 
People  who  knew  Merlin  were  used  to  little 
things  like  this,  and  they  did  not  mind  them 
much.  Still  the  Archbishop  felt  that  Merlin 
had  told  him  a  great  deal  less  than  he  should 
like  to  know.  Perhaps  you  would  like  to  hear 
where  Merlin  went,  and  when  you  have  heard 
you  will  know  more  about  it  than  the  Arch- 
bishop did.  He  travelled  faster  than  the  wind, 
and  he  went  away  up  into  the  north  of  England 
to  visit  an  old  man  named  Bleys.  Bleys  was 
much  older  than  Merlin  himself,  and  he  was 
very  wise.  It  was  said  that  he  was  Merlin's 
master  when  Merlin  was  a  child.  Why  he 
needed  a  master  I  don't  know,  for  Merlin  knew 
more  the  day  he  was  born  than  Bleys  ever  knew 
in  his  life.  But  now  Bleys  was  writing  a  book, 
a  sort  of  history  of  England,  and  he  never 
wrote  anything  in  it  except  just  what  Merlur 
told  him.  And  when  Merlin  was  missing,  as 
he  was  pretty  often,  he  was  usually  up  there 
in  the  North,  telling  Bleys  what  to  write  in  his 
book.  I  am  sorry  the  book  got  lost,  for  it 


1 8          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

might  have  settled  a  good  many  things  that 
have  since  been  in  doubt.  Still  it  never  would 
have  settled  anything  at  all  if  it  were  as  hard 
to  understand  as  a  certain  long  prophecy  of 
Merlin's  which  did  not  get  lost. 

"  But  the  Archbishop  believed  that  whatever 
Merlin  told  him  to  do  must  be  right,  so  he  sent 
messengers  to  all  the  lords  and  told  them  to 
come  to  London  on  Christmas  to  find  out  who 
was  to  be  king.  Then  there  was  a  mighty  stir 
among  the  lords,  you  may  be  sure.  Every  one 
of  them,  secretly  or  openly,  wanted  to  be  king, 
and  I  suppose  at  least  every  other  one  secretly 
thought  that  he  might  be.  One  thought  that 
the  Archbishop  would  be  his  friend  and  would 
choose  him.  Another  thought  that  he  could 
bribe  the  rest  and  get  them  to  choose  him. 
Another  thought  he  could  scare  the  people  into 
choosing  him.  Probably  none  of  them  felt  so 
completely  puzzled  about  what  was  to  happen 
as  the  Archbishop  himself. 

"  So  when  Christmas  came  all  the  lords  met 
in  a  church  here  in  London.  Some  of  the  little 
kings  were  there  too.  They  were  all  ready  to 
cut  one  another's  throat  at  a  second's  notice, 
and  they  all  looke-d  very  meekly  and  very 
reverently  at  the  Archbishop  to  see  what  he 
was  going  to  do  first.  Now,  this  story  that  I 
am  telling  you  is  one  that  I  have  read  in  sev- 
real  books,  but  only  one  of  them  all  says  any- 


The  New  King  at  St.  Paul's        19 

thing  about  what  church  it  was  where  the 
lords  met.  That  one,  the  one  I  like  best  of  all, 
says :  '  The  greatest  church  of  London, 
whether  it  were  Paul's  or  not  the  French  book ' 
maketh  no  mention.'  Now,  if  the  good  old 
knight  who  wrote  this  book  did  not  feel  sure 
'  whether  it  were  Paul's  or  not,'  I  shall  take  the 
liberty  of  believing  that  it  was  Paul's.  So  I 
tell  you  that  they  met  here  in  this  very  church 
where  we  are,  and  that  it  was  just  over  there, 
near  where  Powle's  Cross  was  afterwards,  that 
they  discovered  such  a  wonderful  thing. 

"  I  know  very  well  that  the  little  book  about 
the  Cathedral  that  we  bought  of  the  verger  says 
that  '  In  610,  Ethelbert,  King  of  Kent,  under- 
took the  building  of  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Paul.' 
I  know  very  well,  too,  that  that  was  some  hun- 
dred years  or  so  after  the  time  I  am  telling 
you  about,  but  that  makes  no  difference  to  me. 
There  are  two  ways  of  believing  things.  You 
may  believe  them  with  your  head,  or  you  may 
believe  them  with  your  heart,  and  if  you  al- 
ways like  stories  as  well  as  you  do  now,  you 
will  often  find  it  pleasant  to  believe  things  with 
your  heart  that  you  may  not  be  quite  able  to 
believe  with  your  head.  So  I  believe  that  it 
was  Paul's. 

"  When  the}-  were  all  met  the  Archbishop 
had  not  the  faintest  notion  of  what  he  was  to 
do  with  them,  but  he  thought  that  a  good,  safe 


20          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

thing  to  do  in  any  case  would  be  to  say  mass. 
So  he  said  mass.  When  the  mass  was  over 
some  of  the  lords,  finding  that  nothing  was 
likely  to  happen  inside  the  church,  came  out- 
side. And  then,  as  they  walked  about,  they 
found  the  wonderful  thing  that  had  appeared 
all  of  itself,  just  over  there  near  the  end  of  the 
choir.  It  was  this:  First  there  was  a  big 
square  block  of  stone  ;  then  on  the  top  of  the 
stone  there  was  an  anvil ;  and  then  there  was 
a  sword  stuck  straight  through  the  anvil  and 
the  stone.  The  sword  had  a  beautiful  jewelled 
hilt,  and  on  it  there  were  letters  of  gold  which 
said:  'He  who  can  draw  this  sword  is  the 
rightful  King  of  England.' 

" '  Ah/  said  every  one  of  the  lords  to  himself, 
'  now  it  will  be  very  easy  for  me  to  show  that 
I  am  to  be  King  of  England.' 

"  Some  one  had  run  to  tell  the  Archbishop 
about  the  stone  and  the  anvil  and  the  sword, 
and  he  came  to  see  them  for  himself.  When 
he  had  looked  at  them  he  told  the  lords  that 
all  of  them  who  liked  might  try  to  draw  the 
sword.  Of  course  every  one  of  them  wanted 
to  try,  and  every  one  of  them  did  try,  but  not 
one  of  them  could  move  the  sword.  At  that 
every  one  of  them  was  greatly  surprised  and 
the  Archbishop  was  greatly  pleased,  for  there 
was  irot  one  among  them  who  he  thought  was 
just  the  right  man  to  be  King  of  England. 


The  New  King  at  St.  Parts        21 

44  Then  the  Archbishop  said :  *  The  true  king 
is  not  here,  but  I  know  that  he  will  come  soon, 
and  that  we  shall  see  him.  So  I  bid  you  all 
to  come  here  again  on  Twelfth  Day,  and  then 
you  may  all  try  again  to  draw  the  sword,  if  you 
will,  and  any  man  in  the  whole  land  may  try 
who  will' 

M  So  he  had  a  tent  set  over  the  stone  and  he 
chose  ten  good  knights  to  guard  it,  night  and 
day.  I  don't  know  why  he  thought  it  ought  to 
be  guarded.  Anybody  except  the  rightful 
King  of  England  might  as  well  try  to  steal  the 
church  as  try  to  steal  that  sword.  But  I  am 
only  telling  yon  just  what  happened. 

"  Well,  to  amuse  themselves  while  they  were 
waiting  for  Twelfth  Day,  the  lords  and  the 
knights  decided  to  have  a  tournament  on  New 
Year's  Day,  in  the  fields  outside  the  town.  Do 
you  know  what  a  tournament  was?  It  was  a 
sham  fight — a  play  battle.  It  was  almost  as 
dangerous  as  a  real  battle,  for  knights  were 
often  killed  in  tournaments.  Indeed,  I  think 
the  real  difference  between  a  battle  and  a  tour- 
nament was  that  in  a  battle  they  usually  fought 
about  something,  and  in  a  tournament  they 
usually  fought  about  nothing. 

"  Now,  among  all  the  rest  who  had  come  to 
London,  old  Sir  Ector  had  come,  and  he  had 
brought  Kay  and  Arthur  with  him.  And  on 
New  Year's  Day,  as  the  three  were  riding  to 


22  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

the  fields  to  see  the  tournament,  Kay  found 
that  he  had  forgotten  to  bring  his  sword.  He 
told  Arthur  to  go  back  to  the  house  where 
they  were  staying  and  get  it,  and  Arthur,  like 
a  dutiful  younger  brother,  went.  But  when  he 
got  to  the  house  it  was  locked  up  and  deserted, 
because  everybody  had  gone  to  the  tourna- 
ment. Then  Arthur  remembered  that  he  had 
seen  a  sword  sticking  in  an  anvil  in  St.  Paul's 
Churchyard,  and  he  at  once  thought  that  he 
would  go  and  get  that  for  his  brother  Kay.  I 
can't  think  how  a  bright  boy  like  Arthur  could 
have  been  in  London  for  an  hour  without  hear- 
ing that  that  sword  was  for  nobody  but  the 
King  of  England.  But  I  am  only  telling  you 
what  happened,  and  it  seems  he  knew  noth- 
ing about  it.  So  Arthur,  being  the  only  per- 
son in  London  who  did  not  know  that  nobody 
but  the  King  could  take  that  sword,  just  went 
to  the  tent  and  took  it  and  carried  it  to  Kay. 
The  ten  knights  were  not  guarding  it,  for  they 
had  all  gone  to  the  tournament  too. 

"  But  Kay  knew  all  about  the  sword,  you 
may  be  sure.  As  soon  as  he  saw  it  he  took  it 
to  his  father  and  said :  '  See ;  here  is  the 
sword  that  was  in  the  anvil ;  I  am  to  be  King 
of  England.' 

"  But  Sir  Ector  knew  his  son  Kay  quite  as  well 
as  Kay  knew  the  sword,  and  he  ordered  him  to 
come  straight  back  to  the  church,  and  he  told 


The  New  King  at  St.  Paul's       23 

Arthur  to  come,  too.  Then  he  said :  '  Tell  me, 
on  your  honor,  Kay,  how  you  got  this  sword.' 

"  And  Kay,  who,  I  think,  was  not  such  a  bad 
fellow  after  all,  answered :  *  My  brother  Arthur 
brought  it  to  me.' 

" '  And  how  did  you  get  it  ? '  Sir  Ector  said 
to  Arthur. 

"'Kay  sent  me  for  his  sword,'  Arthur  an- 
swered, '  and  I  could  not  get  it,  because  the 
house  was  locked,  so  I  drew  this  sword  out  of 
the  anvil  to  bring  it  to  him  instead.' 

" '  Arthur/  said  Sir  Ector,  *  if  what  you  say 
is  true,  you  are  to  be  King  of  England.' 

" '  I,'  said  Arthur, '  King  of  England  ?  Why  ?  * 

"'Because  God  has  chosen  you,'  said  Sir 
Ector.  '  Now  see  if  you  can  put  the  sword 
back  in  the  anvil.' 

"  There  was  no  hole  in  the  anvil  where  the 
sword  had  come  out,  but  as  soon  as  Arthur 
touched  the  point  to  the  iron  it  sank  deep  into 
it  and  into  the  stone.  Then  Sir  Ector  and  Sir 
Kay  both  tried  to  draw  it  out,  but  they  could 
not,  and  then  Arthur  drew  it  again  as  easily  as 
he  would  have  drawn  a  common  sword  from 
its  sheath.  And  when  he  had  done  that  Sir 
Ector  and  Sir  Kay  knelt  down  on  the  ground 
before  him.  '  Why  do  you  kneel  to  me,  my 
father  and  my  brother?'  said  Arthur;  *  surely 
I  am  not  better  than  you  just  because  I  can 
draw  this  sword.' 


24  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

"  '  I  am  not  your  father,'  Sir  Ector  answered, 
'and  I  do  not  know  who  your  father  was. 
Surely  he  was  a  greater  man  than  I,  and  surely 
you  are  better  than  we,  for  God  has  chosen 
you  to  be  King  of  England.' 

" '  But  I  do  not  want  to  be  King  of  England,' 
said  Arthur,  '  if  I  must  lose  you  for  my  father. 
And  my  mother — is  she  not  my  mother?' 

" '  I  do  not  know  who  your  mother  was,'  Sir 
Ector  answered,  '  but  my  wife  is  not  your 
mother.  But,  oh,  Arthur,  we  have  always 
loved  you  as  if  you  were  our  own  son — as 
much  as  we  loved  Kay,  who  is  our  own  son. 
And  so,  Arthur,  promise  me  now  that  when 
you  are  King  you  will  do  one  thing  that  I  ask 
of  you.' 

" '  I  will  do  all  that  you  can  ask  ot  me,  my 
father.' 

"'Then  promise  me,'  said  Sir  Ector,  'that 
when  you  are  King  you  will  make  Kay  senes- 
chal of  all  your  lands  and  of  all  your  castles. 
And  if  he  is  ever  rough  or  rude — for  I  know  he 
is  not  like  you,  my  own  Arthur — promise  me 
that  you  will  forgive  him,  and  remember  that 
he  was  your  foster-brother.' 

" '  Father,'  said  Arthur,  '  if  I  am  to  be  King, 
none  but  Kay  shall  ever  be  my  seneschal  as 
long  as  we  both  live.' 

"Now  Sir  Ector  hurried  to  tell  the  Arch- 
bishop what  Arthur  had  done.  'Leave  the 


The  New  King  at  St.  Paul's        25 

sword  where  it  was/  said  the  Archbishop, 
'  and  say  nothing-  about  it  till  Twelfth  Day. 
Come  then,  and  Arthur  shall  draw  the  sword 
before  all  the  people.' 

"  So  on  Twelfth  Day  the  lords  all  came 
to  St.  Paul's  again,  and  the  Archbishop  stood 
up  before  them  and  said :  '  To-day  it  shall  be 
shown  to  you  who  is  to  be  your  King.  Swear, 
now,  all  of  you,  here  before  God  and  before 
me,  His  priest,  that,  whoever  draws  this  sword, 
you  will  obey  him,  honor  him,  guard  him, 
and  be  faithful  to  him  as  your  true  and  only 
King.' 

"  And  when  they  had  all  taken  this  oath  the 
Archbishop  said  :  '  Now  let  every  one  try  to 
draw  this  sword  who  will.'  And  they  all 
pulled  and  tugged  at  it,  as  they  had  done  be- 
fore, and  not  one  of  them  could  move  it.  Then 
the  Archbishop  led  Arthur  to  the  stone,  and  he 
drew  out  the  sword  and  held  it  up  before  them 
alL  And  the  Archbishop  said :  '  This  is  Arthur, 
your  King.' 

"The  Archbishop  thought  that  the  lords 
would  all  kneel  before  the  King  at  once,  and 
swear  again  to  be  his  true  subjects,  but  not  one 
of  them  moved.  Then  they  began  to  mutter 
one  to  another ;  then  they  talked  angrily  and 
said :  '  We  cannot  take  this  boy  for  our  King, 
Who  is  he?  Only  old  Sir  Ector's  son.  Why 
should  we  obey  him  ? ' 


26          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

" '  He  is  not  my  son,'  said  Sir  Ector  ;  '  he  is 
of  a  better  blood  than  any  of  us.' 

" '  Of  what  blood,  then  ?'  they  all  asked. 

"  '  I  do  not  know,'  said  Sir  Ector ;  '  but  he  has 
drawn  the  sword.  Is  not  that  enough?  ' 

"  'No,'  they  all  cried  again,  '  he  is  nobody's 
son  ;  he  shall  not  be  our  King." 

"  Then  one  of  them  asked  the  Archbishop  to 
wait  till  Candlemas,  and  to  let  them  all  try  the 
sword  again.  And  the  Archbishop  said  that 
it  should  be  so.  And  on  Candlemas  they  all 
came  back  and  tried  again,  and  again  none  of 
them  could  draw  the  sword  but  Arthur.  Still 
the  lords  said  that  Arthur  should  never  be 
their  King,  and  they  said  that  they  would  try 
again  at  Easter.  And  when  Easter  came  it  was 
just  as  before,  and  they  said  again  that  they 
would  wait  till  PentecostX  Then  the  Arch- 
bishop feared  that  some  of  the  lords  would  try 
to  do  some  harm  to  Arthur,  so  he  put  a  guard 
around  him,  to  be  with  him  always.  He  chose 
knights  whom  he  could  trust  for  this  guard. 
They  were  knights,  the  most  of  them,  who  had 
been  Uther  Pendragon's  men,  and  had  been 
faithful  to  him.  Ulfius  and  Brastias  were  two 
of  them.  I  tell  you  their  names  because  I  may 
have  more  to  say  about  them  some  time. 

"  All  this  time  nobody  in  London  heard  any- 
thing about  Merlin.  But  I  do  not  believe  that 
he  spent  all  these  months  in  telling  Bleys  what 


The  New  King  at  St.  Panfs       27 

to  write  in  his  book.  I  think  that  he  iras  going 
about  among  the  common  people,  talking  with 
them,  telling  them  about  this  Arthur,  this  new 
King  whom  they  were  to  hare,  and  urging 
them  to  come  to  London  at  Pentecost  and  help 
to  choose  him.  H  an  j  of  the  people,  I  dare  sa  j, 
were  willing  enough,  for  they  hated  the  cruel 
lords  who  ruled  them,  and  they  thought  that 
any  change  must  be  good.  But  there  were 
others  who  had  suffered  so  much  that  they  did 
not  believe  there  could  eTer  be  good  times  any 
more.  There  were  some,  too,  who  feared  their 
lords  even  more  than  they  hated  them,  and 
with  these  Merlin  had  a  harder  task.  'I  do 
not  want  any  new  king,'  said  one  of  these; 
•  my  lord  up  there  in  the  castle  is  good  enough 
for  me.*  He  did  not  know  who  Merlin  was. 

"« Your  lord  is  good  enough  for  you  ?"  asked 
Merlin.  « Is  he  kind  to  you  ?  Does  he  rule 
you  wen?' 

***  He  rules  wefl  enough,"  the  man  said ;  *  I 
wfll  not  say  anything  or  do  anything  against 


"'He  rules  weO  enough?'  Merlin  repeated. 
•  Yon  saved  a  little  money  once,  to  use  when 
you  were  old  or  sick;  where  is  that  money  ?" 

*"I  never  saved  any  money,"  the  man  an- 
swered. 

•"What  is  that  deep  scar  across  your  fore- 
head?" Merlin  asked. 


28  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

"  «  I  got  it  in  a  fight  with  clubs,  when  I  was 
a  boy,'  the  man  answered. 

" '  You  are  telling  me  lies,'  said  Merlin. 
'  You  did  save  some  money.  Your  good  lord 
heard  of  it  and  he  sent  his  men  to  drag  you  up 
there  to  the  castle.  They  put  a  strong  cord 
around  your  head  and  tied  it  in  a  knot  behind ; 
they  put  a  stick  through  the  knot  and  twisted 
the  cord  with  the  stick  and  tightened  it  till  it 
almost  cut  the  top  of  your  head  off.  It  would 
have  cut  the  top  of  your  head  off  if  you  had 
not  told  them  where  you  had  buried  your 
money.  And  you  love  this  lord  !  Go  and  tell 
your  lies  to  him  ;  do  not  tell  them  to  me.  You 
hate  him  in  your  heart.  You  would  like 
to  murder  him  if  you  thought  you  would  not 
be  hanged  for  it.  Will  you  come  to  Lon- 
don now  and  help  to  choose  Arthur  for  your 
King?' 

"  The  man  had  fallen  on  his  knees.  '  Yes, 
yes/  he  cried ;  « I  know  now  that  you  are  Mer- 
lin ;  all  that  you  have  said  is  true  ;  I  will  do 
whatever  you  say.' 

" '  Then  come  to  London  at  Pentecost.' 

"  There  was  an  old  man  who  told  Merlin  that 
a  new  king  could  do  no  good.  *  He  would  be 
as  bad  as  the  rest ;  each  of  them  is  worse  than 
the  others.' 

'"Would  he  be  worse  than  the  lord  you  have 
now?'  Merlin  asked. 


The  New  King  at  SL  PauTs       29 

"'No,  he  could  not  be  worse  than  that.  Do 
you  know  what  this  lord  did  ? ' 

"'Yes,'  said  Merlin, 'I  know  what  he  did, 
but  YOU  may  tell  me.' 

"'  He  robbed  me  of  everything  I  had/  said 
the  old  man, '  and  then,  when  I  had  nothing 
else  left,  he  said  I  must  give  my  daughter  to 
be  married  to  one  of  his  men  who  wanted  her. 
He  said  he  had  a  right  to  marry  her  to  whom 
he  pleased.  I  do  not  know.  They  have  all 
the  rights  and  we  have  no  rights.  I  was  away 
in  the  fields  when  they  came  to  get  her,  but 
my  son  was  here,  and  he  knocked  down  the 
man  who  tried  to  touch  his  sister.  For  that 
they  carried  him  to  the  castle  and  locked  him 
in  a  dungeon.  That  was  a  year  ago.  I  do  not 
know  whether  he  is  alive  now  or  not.  I  hope 
he  is  dead ;  it  is  better  for  him  if  he  is." 

"  Merlin  made  no  answer  to  all  this.  He 
only  said :  '  You  are  an  old  man  ;  do  you  re- 
member Uther  Pendragon  ? " 

" '  Remember  him  ? '  the  other  cried.  '  Re- 
member Uther  Pendragon?  Did  I  not  fight 
for  him  in  the  last  of  all  his  battles  ?  The  King 
was  sick  and  could  not  ride  with  his  knights. 
We  had  no  leader  and  the  Saxons  always 
drove  us  before  them.  We  could  not  stand 
against  them.  Then  it  was  told  that  we  should 
never  beat  them  till  the  King  himself  came  to 
the  battle.  And  they  brought  him  in  a  litter 


30          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

and  carried  him  among  his  knights.  He  passed 
close  to  me,  and  when  I  saw  how  pale  he 
looked  I  said  to  the  man  who  stood  next  to 
me :  "  The  King  is  weak :  we  must  be  his. 
strength  to-day."  And  he  passed  the  word 
along  the  line  and  all  the  men  gripped  their 
bows  harder.  And  when  the  King,  lying  there 
almost  dying,  called  out  and  cheered  us  on, 
his  knights  fought  like  furies,  and  we  all  shot 
our  arrows  farther  and  faster  than  we  had  ever 
shot  them  before.  And  how  the  Saxons  ran 
before  us!  Ran  away,  all  of  them — all  but 
those  who  were  left  lying  on  the  field !  And 
those  three  great  leaders  of  theirs,  Octa,  and 
Ebissa,  and  Ossa — they  were  left  lying  on  the 
field  with  the  rest.  Yes,  I  remember  Uther 
Pendragon.' 

"  The  old  man  had  got  quite  excited,  but 
Merlin  looked  at  him  sternly.  '  When  they 
told  you,'  he  said,  'that  you  would  win  the  bat- 
tle if  the  King  came,  did  you  believe  it?' 

" '  No,'  said  the  old  man,  '  none  of  us  believed 
it  would  make  any  difference,  but  when  we  saw 
him  and  when ' 

"  '  Yes,  yes,'  said  Merlin,  looking  sterner  still, 
'and  who  was  it  whom  you  did  not  believe? 
Who  was  it  that  said  that  the  King  must  come 
to  the  battle  ? ' 

"  The  old  man  stared  at  Merlin  for  an  instant 
in  a  startled  way  and  then  dropped  his  eyes 


The  New  King  at  Si.  Paul's       31 

before  his  fierce  look  and  trembled.  'Oh,  I 
had  forgotten,  I  had  forgotten,1  he  cried;  'it 
was  you.' 

" '  Yes,'  said  Merlin, '  it  was  I.  You  did  not 
believe  me  then,  just  as  you  do  not  believe  me 
now.  But  what  I  said  then  was  true,  and  what 
I  say  now  is  true.  I  tell  you  that  this  Arthur 
will  be  a  better  king  than  Uther  Pendragon.  I 
will  tell  you  more :  your  son,  up  there  in  the 
dungeon  of  the  castle,  is  not  dead.  But  it  is  a 
year  since  he  saw  the  light  of  day,  and  they  are 
starving  him,  besides.  He  will  not  live  much 
longer  if  he  stays  there.  Will  you  help  us  to 
choose  the  new  King? ' 
"'  I  will  do  whatever  you  say.* 
"  •  Then  come  to  London  at  Pentecost.' 
"And  when  Pentecost  came  they  were  all 
here  at  St.  Paul's  again.  Over  there  by  the 
end  of  the  choir  stood  the  Archbishop,  beside 
the  stone  and  the  anvil  and  the  sword.  Close 
to  him  was  Arthur.  Around  them  were  the 
lords,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  ground  about  the 
church  was  filled  with  the  common  people. 
They  had  not  come  merely  to  look  on  this  time. 
They  were  weary  of  the  quarrels  of  the  lords, 
and  they  were  resolved — they,  the  common 
people — that  this  time  they  would  have  a 
king. 

"And  the  lords  all  came,  one  at  a  time,  and 
tugged  at  the  sword  again,  and  when  they  were 


32  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

all  tired  Arthur  drew  it  out  and  held  it  up  be- 
fore them. 

"  Then  they  all  said,  as  they  had  said  before, 
that  they  would  put  off  the  choice  and  would 
try  again.  But  the  Archbishop  said  that  there 
should  be  no  more  delay ;  and  Sir  Ector  and  Sir 
Kay  and  Sir  Ulfius  and  Sir  Brastias  stood 
around  Arthur  and  called  upon  the  Archbishop 
to  make  him  King. 

"  While  they  and  the  lords  were  wrangling 
about  it  two  strange  men  came  along  the  road 
to  the  outer  edge  of  the  crowd.  They  looked 
so  strange  and  fierce  that  those  who  first  saw 
them  were  frightened.  They  were  covered 
with  dust,  as  if  they  had  travelled  far  on  foot. 
Their  clothes  were  torn,  their  hair  hung  tan- 
gled about  their  faces,  and  they  stared  around 
them  with  wild,  eager  eyes.  Some  of  the  peo- 
ple thought  that  they  were  madmen  and  tried 
to  get  out  of  their  path.  But  one  of  them 
cried :  '  Where  is  this  new  King  ?  We  want 
to  see  him  ! " 

" '  There  is  no  king  yet,'  somebody  answered ; 
'  be  still ;  the  Archbishop  is  going  to  speak.' 

"  But  the  man  with  the  wild  eyes  would  not 
be  still.  'What  do  we  care  for  the  Arch- 
bishop ? '  he  cried.  '  We  want  a  king.  We 
have  come  from  the  seashore,  down  beyond 
the  mouth  of  the  river.  Two  days  ago  a  ship 
full  of  pirates  came  there.  They  burned  our 


The  New  King  at  St.  Paul's       33 

houses  and  carried  away  our  wives  to  sell  for 
slaves,  and  our  children — oh,  I  cannot  think  of 
what  they  did  with  the  children!  We  could 
not  help  them,  there  were  so  many  of  the 
pirates.  And  they  went  away  in  their  ship 
and  left  us  with  the  ashes  of  our  houses.  But 
\ve  had  heard  that  you  up  here  in  London 
were  choosing  a  new  king.  They  told  us  that 
there  had  been  a  miracle  to  show  who  was  the 
King.  So  we  came  to  see  him.  We  want  to 
tell  him  what  the  pirates  do  to  his  people.  We 
want  to  know  if  he  can  protect  them  better 
than  these  little  lords.  Where  is  he?  If  he 
can,  we  are  for  him.' 

" '  There  he  is,'  said  some  one,  pointing,  *  there 
beside  the  Archbishop  ;  the  one  with  the  sword 
in  his  hand — Arthur.' 

"'What,  the  boy  who  stands  there  so  still  and 
looks  so  pale?  Well,  he  may  be  good  and 
brave  for  all  that.  We  have  seen  brave  men 
turn  pale,  down  there  by  the  sea.  What  are 
they  quarrelling  about?  Arthur,  did  you  call 
him?  Is  he  the  one  that  did  the  miracle? 
Then  we  want  him  for  our  King  !  Shout  with 
us,  all  of  you,  and  say  that  we  will  have  him 
and  that  we  will  kill  anybody  who  says  he  shall 
not  be  King !  I  can  shoot  an  arrow  straight  to 
'any  mark,  and  I  will  shoot  all  the  arrows  he 
will  give  me  for  this  Arthur  if  he  will  be  a  real 
King  and  protect  his  people.' 


34          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

"  The  men  from  the  sea  were  so  much  excited, 
and  they  had  such  good  reason  to  be,  that  those 
around  them  began  to  get  excited,  too.  Then 
those  farther  off  caught  up  the  cry  and  in  a 
moment  all  the  people  were  shouting  that  Ar- 
thur should  be  King  and  that  nobody  should 
put  him  off  any  longer.  But  the  lords,  for  one 
last  time,  cried  out :  '  We  will  try  again  ;  put 
the  sword  back  in  the  anvil.'  And  then  the 
Archbishop  raised  his  hands  and  silenced 
them  all,  and  said  to  Arthur,  so  that  all 
could  hear :  '  Do  not  put  the  sword  back ;  it 
is  yours  now  ;  keep  it,  guard  your  people  with 
it,  and  drive  out  their  enemies.  And  now  fol- 
low me.' 

"  Then  he  took  Arthur  by  the  hand  and  led 
him  into  the  church  and  up  the  steps  of  the 
altar,  where  Arthur  laid  the  sword.  And  the 
lords  came  in  and  the  people  followed  them 
and  filled  the  church,  and  still  there  was  a 
great  crowd  outside,  where  the  people  pushed 
and  struggled  to  get  near  the  doors  and 
called  to  those  within  to  tell  them  what  was 
done. 

"  When  there  was  silence  again  the  Arch- 
bishop said  :  '  My  lords  and  people  ;  here  be- 
fore this  altar,  all  last  night,  Arthur  watched 
his  arms.  He  is  ready  now  to  be  made  a 
knight.'  Then  Arthur  knelt  before  him  and 
the  Archbishop  said :  '  Do  you  swear  to  me 


Tke  New  King  at  St.  Pa*Ts       35 

that  you  will  love  God  and  keep  His  laws; 
that  you  will  be  always  loyal  and  upright ;  that 
the  good  and  brave  deeds  you  do  shall  be  your 
glory,  and  that  you  will  do  none  for  other  glory 
or  for  gain  ?  Do  you  swear  that  you  will  be 
faithful,  gentle,  and  merciful;  that  you  will 
ever  fight  for  the  right  of  the  poor  and  the 
weak,  and  that  you  will  fear  shame  more  than 
death?' 

"  And  Arthur  answered :  •  I  swear  it.' 
"  The  Archbishop  took  the  sword  from  the 
altar  and  touched  Arthur's  neck  with  the  blade. 

•  Rise,  Sir  Arthur/  he  said, '  and  may  God  make 
you  a  good  knight.*    Then  he  fastened  the 
sword  upon  Arthur's  side. 

-  And  now  the  Archbishop  made  all  the  lords 
take  again  the  oath,  that  they  had  kept  so  badly 
since  Twelfth  Day,  that  they  would  be  faithful 
to  the  King  and  would  obey  him,  honor  him,  and 
guard  him.  And  the  lords,  seeing  that  it  was 
of  no  use  to  do  anything  else,  took  the  oath. 

"  Then  the  Archbishop  said  to  Arthur  again : 

*  Do  yon  swear  that  you  will  keep  and  guard 
your  people  from  their  enemies,  as  God  shall 
help  yon;  that  you  will  strive  for  peace  and 
justice  in  your  land;  that  you  will  rule  poor 
and  rich  alike,  and  that  you  will  give  right  to 
all?    Do  you  swear  that  you  will  be  in  all 
things  a  true  King  to  your  people  and  a  true 
servant  to  the  King  of  Kings?' 


36  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

"  And  Arthur  said  :  '  I  swear  it.' 

"  Then  at  last  the  Archbishop  set  the  crown 
upon  his  head,  and  the  people  in  the  church 
shouted,  and  the  people  outside  caught  up  the 
shout,  and  it  rang  for  the  first  time, '  Long  live 
King  Arthur ! '  that  shout  that  was  to  ring  so 
many  times  and  so  long  and  never  quite  die 
away. 

"  And  when  it  was  all  over  and  they  came 
out  into  the  churchyard,  the  stone  and  the  an- 
vil were  gone." 


CHAPTER  HI 

THE  ROUXD  TABLE 

JUST  what  I  said  about  London  I  wffl  say 
again  about  the  beautiful  places  in  the  Mid- 
lands  of  England.  The  books  will  tefl  you  a 
great  deal  that  is  pleasant  and  useful  of  Oxford, 
with  its  spires  and  domes  and  towers;  of  KeniL 
worth,  with  its  fine  old  ruined  castle  walls ;  of 
Warwick,  with  its  fine  old  castle  walls  that  are 
not  mined;  of  Stratford-on-Avon,  where  every- 
body talks  about  Shakespeare  all  day  and 
dreams  about  Shakespeare  all  night;  of  Wor- 
cester, where  they  make  cups  and  saucers  and 
gloves  and  sauce.  But  if  we  leave  all  these  be- 
hind  and  I  try  to  tell  you  something  about  Caer- 
leon-upon-Usk,  perhaps  I  may  not  do  it  in  quite 
the  same  way  as  the  books. 

I  think  very  few  people  go  to  Caerieon-upon- 
Usk.  The  ticket-seller  at  the  railway  station 
in  Newport  looked  surprised  when  we  told 
him  we  wanted  to  go  there.  Still,  he  made  no 


38  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

objection.  The  one  or  two  people  about  the 
station  at  Caerleon-upon-Usk  looked  surprised 
when  we  got  off  the  train  there.  But  they 
asked  no  questions.  The  three  or  four  whom 
we  met  as  we  walked  up  the  street  looked  sur- 
prised to  see  us.  I  had  been  told  that  to  find 
King  Arthur's  Round  Table  we  must  walk  for  a 
few  minutes  along  the  road  opposite  the  mu- 
seum. The  museum  had  columns  on  its  front 
that  made  it  look  as  if  it  belonged  to  a  Greek 
town,  instead  of  an  English  one,  but  the  ram- 
bling church,  with  the  square  tower,  close  by  it, 
looked  English  enough.  It  was  not  far  to  a 
broad  green  field,  with  a  low  mound  in  the 
middle  of  it,  covered  with  grass  like  the  rest. 
This  mound  was  in  the  form  of  a  ring,  with 
a  hollow  in  the  middle  and  a  gap  at  one  side 
for  an  entrance.  Some  children  were  playing 
in  the  hollow.  At  one  side  of  the  field  there 
was  a  low  stone  wall,  and  in  the  middle  of  it 
a  gate,  with  a  pointed  arch  of  the  same  kind 
of  stone  above  it.  The  wall  came  only  a  little 
way  up  the  sides  of  the  arch,  and  in  the  arch 
itself  there  was  just  enough  stone  to  hold  to- 
gether. It  all  looked  very  old.  A  little  boy 
sat  on  the  stile  that  we  had  to  cross  to  get 
into  the  field,  and  when  we  spoke  to  him  he 
was  more  surprised  than  any  of  the  other 
people  we  had  met.  "Is  this  what  they  call 
King  Arthur's  Round  Table?"  I  asked. 


The  Round  Table  39 

"  Yes,  sir,"  he  said  ;  "  and  they  call  it  the 
dingle." 

"The  dingle?" 

"  Yes,  sir,  they  say  it's  that." 

"  But  you  have  heard  people  call  it  King 
Arthur's  Round  Table,  have  you  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir,  I've  heard  that,  too." 

"What  is  that  arch  for?"  I  said,  pointing 
across  to  the  gateway  in  the  walL 

"  I  don't  know,  sir." 

"How  old  is  it?" 

"I  don't  know,  sir;  it's  thirteen  years  old, 
anyway." 

I  was  the  one  who  was  surprised  at  this. 
"Ah,  is  it?"  I  said;  ""it  looks  as  much  as  a 
hundred.  You  never  heard  anybody  say  how 
old  it  was?" 

"No,  sir;  it  was  there  before  I  was  born,  and 
I'm  eleven." 

We  gave  the  boy  two  or  three  pennies,  and 
he  hurried  off  to  find  some  other  boys  and 
show  them  how  much  money  there  was  in  the 
world.  I  wondered,  as  we  walked  across  the 
field  and  sat  down  on  the  mound,  if  King 
Arthur,  with  all  the  castles,  and  towers,  and 
treasures  that  were  his  once  here  at  Caerleon, 
ever  felt  as  rich  as  this  boy. 

"  For  it  was  here,"  I  said, "  that  Arthur  lived, 
after  they  made  him  King,  more  than  anywhere 
else,  except  at  Camelot.  Here  he  fought  bat- 


40          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

ties ;  here  many  times  he  held  his  court,  with 
his  knights  around  him ;  from  here  the  knights 
rode  away  to  find  adventures ;  back  here  they 
came  to  tell  their  stories  to  the  King  and  the 
Queen ;  and  here  now,  they  say,  down  under 
the  ground,  just  under  this  very  spot  where 
we  sit,  in  a  great  hall,  with  high  pillars  and 
arches  that  hold  up  this  green  field,  King  Ar- 
thur sits  sleeping,  with  all  his  knights  around 
him.  The  knights  are  asleep  and  their  horses 
are  all  there  beside  them,  asleep  too.  They 
wear  their  armor  and  their  swords,  and  their 
spears  are  ready.  And  some  time,  they  say, 
when  the  people  of  England  are  in  great  need, 
King  Arthur  and  his  knights  will  awake  and 
will  come  and  save  the  people,  just  as  Arthur 
saved  them  before,  so  many  hundred  years  ago. 
You  see  this  is  a  very  pretty  story,  but  I  am 
sorry  to  say  that  I  cannot  quite  believe  it." 

"But  you  asked  the  boy,"  said  Helen,  "if 
that  was  King  Arthur's  Round  Table,  and  he 
said  it  was ;  but  I  don't  see  any  table." 

"Neither  do  I,  but  what  they  call  the  Round 
Table  is  this  very  mound  that  we  are  sitting 
on." 

"  But  this  isn't  a  table,"  Helen  insisted  ;  "  it 
looks  more  like  a  place  for  a  circus." 

"  You  are  such  a  horribly  clever  child,"  I 
said,  "  that  there  is  really  no  doing  anything 
with  you.  That  is  probably  just  what  it  is,  or 


The  Round  Table  41 

was — a  place  for  a  circus.  Long  before  Arthur's 
time  the  Romans  held  Caerleon.  It  was  one 
of  the  greatest  cities  of  all  England  then.  And 
the  Romans  were  always  about  as  fond  of  cir- 
cuses as  the  boys  and  girls  in  New  York  are 
now,  so  I  have  no  doubt  that  they  had  one  here, 
and  that  this  is  it.  Still,  King  Arthur  certainly 
lived  at  Caerleon  and  he  certainly  had  a  won- 
derful Round  Table.  Arthur  must  have  been 
pleasanter  for  the  people  to  remember,  I  sup- 
pose, than  the  Romans,  and  so,  when  they  had 
forgotten  all  about  what  this  mound  really  was, 
they  began  to  call  it  the  Round  Table,  and  you 
see  they  call  it  so  still. 

"  I  have  no  doubt  that  it  really  was  here  at 
Caerleon  that  ^Merlin  made^the  Round  _Table, 
for  it  was  Merlin  wHo~made~IE  But  it  did  not 
always  stay  here.  This  great  pile  of  earth 
looks  as  if  it  would  be  rather  hard  to  move,  yet 
Arthur  and  his  knights  sat  at  the  Round  Table, 
sometimes  here,  sometimes  at  Camelot  or  West- 
minster, and  once,  the  stories  say,  in  Rome.  It 
must  have  been  rather  a  big  and  heavy  affair, 
whatever  it  was,  for  there  were  places  around 
it  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  knights.  But  one  of 
the  old  stories  says  that,  by  the  magic  that 
Merlin  put  into  it,  it  could  be  folded  up  and 
carried  about,  as  easily  as  the  cloth  of  an  ordi- 
nary table.  And  that  was  not  all  of  the  magic. 
Merlin  made  the  Round  Table  for  Uther  Pen- 


42  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

dragon,  who  used  to  live  here  at  Caerleon,  too. 
And  Merlin  made  seats  around  it  for  the 
knights,  and  when  they  were  done  he  said  to 
Uther :  *  All  these  seats  you  may  fill  with  your 
knights,  except  this  one  next  your  own.  This 
is  the  Siege  Perilous.  Nobody  must  ever  sit 
here  except  the  best  knight  of  all  the  world, 
and  he  will  not  come  to  sit  here  till  long  after 
you  are  dead/ 

"  Now,  it  was  a  strange  thing  that  people  usu- 
ally did  just  about  what  Merlin  told  them  as 
long  as  he  was  looking.  But  when  he  went 
away  for  a  little  while  they  began  to  find  that 
they  never  believed  much  of  what  he  said,  and 
that  they  themselves  knew  quite  as  much  as  he. 
And  so,  once,  when  Merlin  was  away,  King 
Uther's  knights  decided  that  it  was  all  nonsense 
about  the  Siege  Perilous  and  the  best  knight  of 
all  the  world.  The  seat  looked  just  like  the 
others,  they  said,  and  it  was  none  too  good  for 
any  of  them.  Then  one  of  them  said  that  he 
would  sit  in  it  himself,  just  to  show  that  he 
could.  And  he  did  sit  in  it,  and  that  was  the 
last  that  was  ever  seen  of  him.  All  the  rest 
were  watching,  and  they  saw  him  sit  down,  and 
then  they  saw  that  the  seat  was  just  as  empty 
as  it  was  before.  Nobody  could  see  where  he 
went  or  what  had  become  of  him.  Only  there 
was  the  empty  seat,  and  the  knight  never  came 
back  to  tell  where  he  had  been.  It  was  a  long 


The  Round  Table  43 

time  before  anybody  sat  in  the  Siege  Perilous 
again. 

"After  Uther  Pendragon's  time  a  certain 
king  named  Leodogran  had  the  Round  Table. 
He  was  King  of  Cameliard.  I  don't'  know 
what  or  where  Cameliard  was,  but  I  have  a 
dim  sort  of  notion  that  it  was  somewhere  far 
up  in  the  North.  I  don't  know,  either,  how 
King  Leodogran  got  the  Round  Table.  But 
he  had  it,  and  he  kept  it  till  Arthur— but  that 
is  getting  ahead  of  the  story. 

"It  was  here  to  Caerieon  that  Arthur  came, 
after  he  had  been  crowned  at  St.  Paul's,  and 
after  he  had  put  things  straight  around  Lon- 
don and  had  arranged  affairs  so  that  they  could 
go  on  a  little  better  than  they  had  been  going 
before.  And  the  Round  Table  was  not  here 
then.  And  here  he  invited  all  the  great  lords 
and  all  the  little  kings  to  a  feast.  But  when 
the  guests  were  all  here  he  found  that  the  kings 
had  not  come  to  eat  and  drink  with  him  and 
to  talk  with  him  of  what  was  best  for  the  coun- 
try, as  he  had  thought  they  would,  but  to  fight 
and  to  try  to  kill  him. 

"  They  made  a  great  camp  around  the  castle 
that  stood  not  far  from  where  we  are  sitting, 
and  Arthur  and  his  men  went  out  and  attacked 
them  and  drove  them  back.  Many  of  the  lords 
and  knights  were  true  to  their  promise  now,  and 
were  on  Arthur's  side,  and  so  were  all  the  com- 


44  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

mon  people,  except  some  that  were  under  one 
or  another  of  the  little  kings  and  had  to  fight 
for  them,  whether  they  liked  it  or  not.  Yet 
Merlin  thought  it  was  not  safe  to  try  any  great 
battle  yet,  so  he  said  to  Arthur:  'Over  in 
France  there  are  two  good  kings.  They  are 
brothers,  Ban  and  Bors.  They  are  strong, 
brave,  and  true  men,  but  now  another  kingv 
Claudas,  is  making  war  upon  them,  and  he  is 
so  powerful  that,  strong  and  brave  as  they  are, 
they  need  help  against  him.  Send  word  to 
them  that,  if  they  will  come  to  England  and 
help  you  against  your  enemies,  you  will  go 
back  to  France  with  them  and  fight  against 
King  Claudas.' 

"  This  seemed  a  good  plan,  and  whether  it 
had  seemed  good  or  not  Arthur  would  have 
done  whatever  Merlin  advised.  So  Merlin 
himself  went  over  to  the  two  kings  and  told 
them  how  Arthur  had  been  made  King  of  Eng- 
land, and  how  he  was  surely  to  be  a  greater 
King  than  Uther  Pendragon,  and  what  a  good 
friend  Arthur  would  always  be  to  them,  if  they 
would  help  him  now.  Then  Merlin  came  back, 
in  less  time  than  it  would  have  taken  anybody 
else  to  go  half-way  to  France,  and  told  Arthur 
that  Ban  and  Bors  would  come. 

"And  when  they  came  Merlin  said  that  it 
would  be  better  to  hide  them  and  their  knights 
in  the  woods  and  let  Arthur  and  his  knights 


The  Round  Table  45 

fight  with  the  kings  alone  for  a  while.  That 
would  make  the  enemy  bolder,  when  they  saw 
onlj  a  few  coming  against  them,  and  would 
lead  them  on  to  the  fight,  and  then  King  Ban 
and  King  Bors  could  come  out  of  the  woods 
and  fall  upon  them.  I  don't  know  enough 
about  battles  myself  to  be  quite  certain  whether 
this  would  do  any  good  or  not,  but  Merlin  was 
always  fond  of  surprises,  and  of  course  they 
did  what  Merlin  said.  He  told  Arthur,  too, 
not  to  use  the  sword  that  he  drew  out  of  the 
stone  till  he  got  into  the  very  thickest  of  the 
fight  and  really  needed  it. 

"  And  the  kings  were  all  good  fighters,  and 
they  had  brave  knights  with  them,  and  there 
were  so  many  of  them  that  when  they  saw  the 
few  knights  of  Arthur  before  them  they 
thought  that  they  could  easily  have  the  battle 
their  own  way.  And  so,  indeed,  it  did  look, 
for  when  their  great  crowd  of  horses  and  of 
men,  with  lances  down,  came  rushing  on  to- 
ward the  little  band  that  Arthur  had,  it  looked 
as  if  it  could  never  stand  against  them.  But 
if  Arthur's  knights  were  few  they  were  as  good 
as  any  in  the  world.  (There  were  Sir  Ulfius 
and  Sir  Brastias  and  old  Sir  Ector,  who  had 
been  Uther's  men,  and  there  were  Sir  Kay 
and  Sir  Lucan,  King  Arthur's  butler,  and  many 
more  who  would  be  true  to  him  as  long  as 
they  lived.  And  if  for  one  moment  Arthur 


46          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

himself  thought  that  his  foes  were  too  many 
and  too  strong  for  him,  his  next  thought  was : 
'  It  is  for  my  people  ;  they  have  suffered  wrong 
from  these  men  too  long  and  too  much,  and 
they  shall  suffer  it  no  more.' 

"  And  he  and  his  knights  charged  with  their 
spears  into  the  midst  of  their  enemies.  And 
after  the  spears  were  broken  they  drew  their 
"*  swords  and  struck  to  right  and  left.  And 
when  he  saw  his  enemies  all  around  him  Ar- 
thur drew  his  sword  that  he  took  from  the 
stone,  and  the  good  old  fellows  who  wrote 
these  stories  hundreds  of  years  ago  say  that  it 
shone  with  a  light  like  thirty  torches.  '  Look 
at  him,'  said  one  of  the  old  knights  to  an- 
other, '  he  fights  as  if  he  were  Uther  come 
back  again.' 

"  '  No,'  the  other  answered,  '  he  fights  better 
than  Uther  ever  did.' 

"  The  rebel  kings  were  beginning  to  find  it 
out,  too,  old  soldiers  as  they  were.  They 
thought  that  Merlin  must  be  helping  with  his 
magic,  but  he  was  not;  it  was  only  Arthur's 
own  hard  fighting.  A  strong  young  arm,  with 
something  good  to  fight  for,  is  a  bad  thing  to 
fight  against,  even  for  men  who  are  older  and 
better  trained.  And  when  Ban  and  Bors  burst 
out  of  the  woods,  with  all  their  men,  and  fell 
upon  the  enemy  too,  they  simply  turned  and 
ran,  those  of  them  who  could  run.  And  still 


The  Round  Table  47 

the  blood  of  Arthur's  men  was  up  and  they 
felt  that  they  had  not  had  half  fighting  enough, 
when  Merlin  called  to  them  all  to  come  back, 
for  the  rebel  kings  were  beaten  and  there  was 
no  more  to  do. 

"  But  in  those  dear  old  days  nobody  ever 
suffered  long  for  want  of  a  good  fight.  And 
so,  almost  before  Arthur  had  done  thanking 
Ban  and  Bors  for  the  help  they  had  given  him, 
a  messenger  came  to  him  from  King  Leodo- 
gran,  of  Cameliard.  And  this  messenger  said 
that  a  giant  named  Ryence,  who  was  King 
of  North  Wales,  was  coming  against  Leodo- 
gran  with  a  great  army.  He  had  sent  to  Leo- 
dogran  to  say  that  he  had  a  mantle  trimmed 
with  kings'  beards  and  he  wanted  Leodo- 
gran's  beard  to  go  with  the  rest.  Leodogran 
must  send  him  his  beard  or  he  would  come 
and  take  it  for  himself,  and  then  he  would  kill 
him  and  destroy  everything  in  his  country. 
Now  Leodogran,  the  messenger  said,  did  not 
like  the  notion  at  all  of  having  to  give  his 
beard  to  another  king  to  trim  his  clothes  with, 
but  he  never  in  the  world  could  fight  Ryence 
alone  and  he  begged  Arthur  to  come  and  help 
him.  When  this  message  had  been  given  Ar- 
thur looked  around  upon  his  knights.  They 
were  all  still  and  all  leaning  forward  to  hear 
his  answer,  and  the  eyes  of  every  one  of  them 
seemed  to  say  to  him  '  Let  us  go.'  And  Ar- 


48          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

thur  looked  at  Ban  and  Bors,  and  the  look  in 
their  faces  said  '  We  will  go  too.'  And  he 
looked  at  Merlin  and  Merlin  nodded,  and  Ar- 
thur said :  '  Tell  your  King  that  I  will  come, 
I  and  my  friends,  King  Ban  and  King  Bors.' 

"  So,  as  soon  as  they  could  make  ready,  they 
all  marched  away  up  into  the  North.  And  one 
evening,  just  as  the  sun  was  setting,  they  came 
to  the  city  of  King  Leodogran,  and  the  gate 
opened  to  let  them  in.  And  Arthur,  riding  at 
the  head  of  his  knights,  looked  through  the  gate- 
way ;  and  all  along  the  street,  before  the  houses 
and  at  the  windows,  there  were  lines  of  faces, 
half  pale  with  fear,  half  flushed  with  hope.  For 
the  people  seemed  scarcely  to  know  whether 
the  gate  was  opened  for  their  friends  or  for 
their  foes;  whether  these  long  lines  of  horse- 
men, these  bright  armors,  and  these  banners 
brought  them  life  or  death.  The  King's  castle 
was  just  inside  the  wall  of  the  town,  and  on 
the  battlement  stood  a  crowd  of  ladies  to  see 
the  three  kings  and  their  knights  go  by. 

"  Arthur  looked  up  at  them  and  one  among 
them  all  caught  his  eye.  The  low  sun  was  behind 
her,  so  that  he  could  not  see  her  face  well,  but  it 
was  young  and  he  thought  that  it  was  the  most 
beautiful  he  had  ever  seen.  Her  hair  was  the 
color  of  gold  and  it  fell  down  upon  her  shoul- 
ders, and  there  were  light  waves  of  it  all  about 
her  head,  and  the  low  sun  shone  through  it  and 


The  Round  Table  49 

made  it  look  to  Arthur  like  the  halo  of  a  saint. 
And  he  saw  no  more  of  the  many  frightened 
and  hopeful  faces  and  none  of  the  other  ladies 
on  the  battlement,  but  only  that  one  face. 
*  Who  is  she?'  he  said  to  Merlin,  who  rode  by 
his  side. 

"  And  the  wise  old  Merlin  knew  just  where 
Arthur  was  looking,  and  he  answered :  '  She  is 
the  King's  daughter,  the  Princess  Guinevere.' 

"  They  turned  an  angle  of  the  castle  wall  and 
she  was  gone.  Arthur  saw  the  anxious  faces  in 
the  street  again.  But  he  saw  them  dimly,  for 
still  that  one  face  was  before  his  eyes,  the  face 
darkened,  with  the  sun  behind  it,  but  around  it 
the  halo  of  the  saint  He  did  not  know  whether 
she  had  seen  him  or  not. 

u  The  next  day  Ryence  and  his  army  were 
before  the  town,  and  the  four  kings,  Arthur  and 
Ban  and  Bors  and  Leodogran,  with  all  their 
knights,  went  out  against  them.  Every  one  had 
all  the  fighting  he  wanted  that  day,  for  Ryence 
had  more  men  than  the  other  four  kings  put  to- 
gether, and  he  thought  he  saw  a  chance  to  get 
four  beards  for  his  mantle,  instead  of  one.  Be- 
sides that,  Ryence  was  more  than  twice  as  tall 
as  an  ordinary  man  and  some  of  his  knights 
were  giants  too.  They  were  not  easy  fellows 
to  fight  against. 

"  Merlin  carried  Arthur's  banner,  and  it  was 
a  very  wonderful  banner,  that  he  had  made 


50          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

himself.  It  had  a  dragon  on  it  breathing  fire 
out  of  its  mouth.  There  was  nothing  strange 
about  that,  of  course,  and  sometimes  people 
looked  at  it  and  saw  nothing  about  it  any  more 
wonderful  than  any  other  banner.  But  in  the 
crowd  that  stood  in  the  streets  to  see  them  all 
go  out  through  the  gate  to  the  battle  there  was 
a  woman  who  held  up  a  child  to  see  the  horses 
and  the  armors.  '  Oh,  look  at  the  banner ! '  the 
child  cried ;  '  what  is  it  doing? ' 

" '  Yes,'  the  woman  said,  '  a  pretty  banner, 
isn't  it? '  She  had  seen  it  a  minute  before  and 
now  she  was  looking  at  the  bright,  painted 
shields  and  the  plumes  on  the  helmets. 

"  '  But  look  at  it,'  the  child  cried  again  ;  '  it's 
all  on  fire.' 

"  The  woman  looked  at  it  again  and  then  she 
almost  dropped  the  child.  '  Look,  look,'  she  whis- 
pered to  another  woman  who  stood  next  to  her  ; 
'  the  dragon  on  the  banner  is  breathing  real  fire ! ' 

"  And  so  it  was ;  instead  of  the  little  spots  of 
gold  that  they  had  seen  before,  real  sparks 
floated  from  the  jaws  of  the  dragon  on  the  ban- 
ner and  went  out  in  the  air  just  above  it.  The 
whisper  the  woman  had  started  grew  and  ran 
all  through  the  crowd  and  everybody  looked  at 
the  banner.  '  It  is  Merlin  carrying  it,'  said  an 
old  man ;  <  we  may  beat  them  yet,  with  Merlin 
on  our  side.' 

"  And  then  the  battle  began,  and  the  fiercer  it 


The  Round  Table  51 

grew  the  more  the  dragon  on  the  banner  spouted 
fire.  Always  Merlin  kept  the  banner  beside 
Arthur,  and  so  always  it  was  in  the  thickest 
part  of  the  fight.  And  when  Arthur's  men  saw 
that  great  torch  blazing  higher  and  brighter, 
it  made  them  feel  that  their  side  was  growing 
stronger ;  and  when  the  men  of  Ryence  saw  it, 
they  feared  more  and  more,  because  it  made 
them  feel  that  some  power  they  did  not  under- 
stand was  against  them. 

"And  Arthur  fought  that  day  as  he  had 
never  fought  before.  He  had  come  because 
he  wanted  to  help  the  good  King  Leodogran 
against  the  cruel  tyrant  Ryence,  but  now  he 
had  something  more  to  fight  for.  He  looked 
straight  at  the  helmet  that  he  charged  against 
with  his  spear,  or  at  the  shield  that  he  struck 
with  his  sword,  or  he  glanced  sharply  around 
him,  that  no  enemy  might  come  upon  him  un- 
awares, but  always,  beyond  the  charging  hel- 
met and  above  the  shield  and  through  all  the 
dust  of  the  battle  he  saw  that  face  that  he 
had  seen  last  night  upon  the  castle  walL  And 
always  when  he  saw  it  plainest,  he  struck 
harder  with  his  spear  or  sword,  and  every  one 
of  his  enemies  went  down  before  him.  He  was 
not  the  first  man  or  the  last  who  ever  struck 
harder  because  he  saw  such  a  face  as  that 
always  before  him. 

"  And  all  day  the  battle  went  on,  the  crowds 


52  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

of  fighting-  men  and  horses  now  surging  up 
close  to  the  city  wall,  now  drifting  away  from 
it  across  the  plain,  and  all  the  women  and  the 
children  and  the  old  men  who  could  find 
places  stood  on  the  wall  to  watch.  And  once 
they  saw  a  sight  that  made  them  all  tremble  and 
turn  pale.  For  Ryence  and  half  a  dozen  of  his 
giant  knights  charged  down  upon  King  Leo- 
dogran  and  threw  him  from  his  horse  and 
seized  him  and  were  dragging  him  away  as 
their  prisoner.  And  Arthur  was  resting  for 
a  moment,  when  Merlin  cried  out  to  him  :  '  Do 
not  stop  now ;  go  on ;  there  is  more  work  for 
you  ;  look ! ' 

"And  Arthur  looked  and  saw  Leodogran 
and  Ryence  and  the  rest.  But  he  saw  more 
than  that,  for  there,  upon  the  castle  rampart, 
looking  out  over  the  city  wall,  she  stood  again 
— the  Princess  Guinevere.  She  saw  her  father, 
and  her  face  was  full  of  terror  and  she  tried  to 
turn  away,  but  she  could  not,  and  still  she 
gazed  at  him  and  at  the  giants  who  were  drag- 
ging him  away.  Just  for  an  instant  Arthur 
looked  at  her  and  thought :  '  This  time  she 
shall  see  me.'  Then  he  spurred  his  horse  and 
charged  straight  against  King  Ryence.  And 
Merlin  kept  by  his  side,  and  the  flame  from  the 
mouth  of  the  dragon  on  his  banner  was  high- 
er and  fiercer  than  it  had  ever  been  before. 
'  What  did  I  say  to  you  in  that  other  battle  ? ' 


The  Round  Table  53 

said  one  of  Arthur's  knights  to  another.  '  Did 
Uther  ever  fight  like  that?'  And  before  the 
other  could  answer  they  both  wheeled  their 
horses  and  dropped  the  points  of  their  spears 
and  charged  against  two  of  the  knights  of 
Rjence  and  threw  them  from  their  saddles. 
Their  armors  clashed  as  the  horses  of  Arthur's 
knights  struck  them  with  their  hoofs,  and  they 
dashed  on  against  more  of  their  enemies. 

"  And  Arthur  and  Ryence  were  fighting  the 
most  terrible  fight  of  all  that  day.  For  Ryence 
was  big  and  strong,  and  Arthur,  thinking  of  the 
eyes  that  were  on  him,  felt  himself  grow  bigger 
and  stronger  than  Ryence.  The  giant  had  a 
beautiful,  bright,  sharp  sword.  It  was  said  that 
Vulcan  had  made  it  for  Hercules  and  that 
Ryence  was  his  descendant  And  Arthur 
thought :  '  If  I  could  only  win  that  sword,  it 
would  be  the  finest  thing  that  I  could  carry 
off  this  field  of  battle.  And  as  they  fought 
Ryence  struck  a  savage  blow  at  Arthur  and 
hit  his  shield  and  cut  it  half  in  two ;  and  there 
his  sword  stuck  and  he  could  not  draw  it  out. 
Then  Arthur  gave  Ryence  a  deep  wound,  and 
he  turned  and  fled  and  left  his  sword  sticking 
in  Arthur's  shield. 

"  There  was  none  of  Ryence's  men  left  in 
that  place  now.  Arthur  found  a  horse  that 
had  belonged  to  one  of  them  and  brought  it 
to  King  Leodogran  and  helped  him  to  mount. 


54          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

Next  he  drew  the  sword  of  Ryence  out  of  his 
shield,  and  then  he  and  his  knights  followed 
Ryence  and  his  men,  who  were  all  fleeing  now. 
They  followed  them  till  they  were  all  broken 
up  and  scattered,  and  then  they  knew  that  the 
battle  was  won  and  they  turned  to  go  back  to 
the  town.  The  gate  was  opened  for  them  and 
they  all  passed  in,  Arthur  and  Merlin  and  Leo- 
dogran  and  Ban  and  Bors  and  all  their  knights  ; 
and  the  people  crowded  to  the  gate  to  meet 
them  and  filled  the  streets  and  cheered  and 
wept  and  laughed,  and  the  dragon  on  Merlin's 
banner  breathed  a  stream  of  fire  high  up  into 
the  air,  above  the  very  towers  of  the  castle. 

"  That  night  Leodogran  made  a  feast  in  his 
castle  hall.  And  there  sat  the  four  kings  and 
all  the  best  of  their  knights  and  Merlin.  And 
the  Princess  Guinevere  served  them,  as  prin- 
cesses did  in  those  days.  But  there  were  two 
in  the  hall  who  ate  and  drank  nothing.  One  of 
them  was  Arthur.  After  all  the  work  and  the 
heat  of  that  day  he  could  not  eat.  He  only  sat 
and  watched  the  Princess,  as  she  moved  about 
the  hall.  He  did  not  think  that  the  others 
might  be  watching  him,  and  I  believe  that  all 
that  he  thought  was :  '  I  must  look  well  at  her 
now,  for  if  I  leave  this  place  to-morrow  I  may 
never  see  her  again.' 

"  I  suppose  Merlin  knew  all  this,  because  he 
knew  everything,  but  of  all  the  rest  only  one 


The  Round   Table  55 

was  watching  Arthur.  That  was  Leodogran, 
and  when  he  saw  that  Arthur's  eyes  followed 
Guinevere  everywhere  she  went,  he  too  could 
not  eat.  And  his  thought  was :  '  He  is  as  brave 
as  my  child  is  beautiful.'  Then  the  Princess 
herself  came  and  knelt  before  Arthur  and 
offered  him  a  gold  cup  full  of  wine  and  said  : 
'  My  Lord,  drink  this ;  why  should  you  be 
afraid  to  eat  and  drink  ?  You  are  not  afraid  to 
fight.' 

"  And  Arthur  gazed  at  her  still,  and  when  he 
tried  to  answer  her  he  scarcely  knew  what  he 
said,  but  it  seemed  to  him  that  it  had  been  un- 
mannerly in  him  to  sit  there  without  eating 
as  he  had,  and  he  took  the  wine  and  said :  '  I 
thank  you,  and  I  will  repay  you  if  I  ever  have 
the  power.' 

" '  You  have  done  more  for  me  already,  my 
Lord,'  she  said,  '  than  I  can  ever  deserve  of 
you.  You  have  saved  my  father's  country  and 
his  people  and  you  saved  my  father's  life  too. 
I  saw  you  and  I  saw  it  all,  there  before  the 
gate,  and  you  might  have  lost  your  own  life.' 

"  Do  you  think  that  Arthur  ate  or  drank 
any  more  after  that  ?  But  Leodogran  tried  to 
laugh  and  to  cheer  on  the  others  and  to  make 
the  night  a  happy  one,  but  still  his  eyes  were 
on  those  two  and  still  his  one  thought  was  '  He 
is  as  brave  as  my  child  is  beautiful.' 

"The  next  day  Arthur  and   Ban  and  Bors, 


56          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

with  all  their  knights,  began  their  march  home, 
for  Merlin  said  :  '  It  is  time  for  you  to  fight 
King  Claudas,  in  France^  They  came  to 
Camelot,  where  Arthur  had  another  castle, 
even  greater  and  more  beautiful  than  the  one1 
here  at  Caerleon.  And  there,  as  they  entered 
the  hall  of  the  castle,  four  young  men  came  to 
meet  them  and  knelt  before  Arthur.  '  My 
Lord,'  said  one  of  them,  '  I  am  Gawain,  and 
these  two  are  my  brothers,  Gaheris  and  Agra- 
vain;  we  are  the  sons  of  King  Lot,  and  this 
other  is  Uwain,  our  cousin,  the  son  of  King 
Urien.  We  have  come  to  be  your  men.  Our 
father,  King  Lot,  fought  against  you  with  the 
other  kings,  but  we  have  tried  to  make  him 
your  friend,  and  he  has  promised  us  that  he 
will  be  so  now  and  will  be  faithful  to  you,  if  you 
will  be  his  friend  and  will  forgive  him.' 

"  Arthur  looked  around  upon  his  knights. 
They  were  all  silent,  and  two  or  three  of  them 
shook  their  heads.  Then  he  looked  again  at 
the  young  men  before  him.  They  had  fresh, 
glowing  young  faces  and  big  bodies  and  strong 
arms,  and  their  bright  young  eyes  looked  eag- 
erly into  his"  for  their  answer.  He  turned  to 
his  knights  once  more.  '  Old  friends,'  he  said, 
'your  hearts  are  all  true  to  me,  I  know,  as  true 
to  me  as  they  were  to  Uther  when  you  were 
his  men.  You  are  tried  and  brave  and  faithful, 
but  how  long  can  I  depend  on  you  ?  I  must 


The  Round  Table  57 

have  men  Eke  these  to  help  me  build  up  m  j 
kingdom.  They  are  such  as  I  am  myself.  I  will 
forgive  King  Lot;  we  have  enemies  enough; 
we  need  friends.* 

"  Arthur  had  not  spoken  to  Merlin,  though 
he  stood  close  at  his  side — had  not  looked  at 
him.  But  now  Merlin  whispered:  'Oh,  my 
King,  it  is  only  a  little  while  longer  that  I  can 
be  with  you,  but  now  when  the  time  comes  I 
can  leave  yon  and  you  will  not  need  me ;  you 
are  the  King.' 

*"My  Lord,'  said  Gawain,  'will  yon  make  us 
knights?1 

"And  Arthur  drew  his  sword  and  touched 
the  shoulder  of  each  of  them  with  it  and  said: 
•  Rise,  Sir  Gawain,  Sir  Gaheris,  Sir  Agravain, 
and  Sir  Uwain,  and  may  God  make  you  good 
knights.' 

"  Then  they  all  marched  on  again  and  crossed 
over  into  France  and  fought  with  King  Clau- 
das,  the  enemy  of  Ban  and  Bors.  And  when 
they  had  beaten  him  and  driven  him  back  to 
his  own  country,  Arthur  said  to  the  brother 
kings :  •  We  do  not  need  each  other  any  more. 
You  have  helped  me  more  than  I  could  help 
you,  for  I  needed  help  more  than  you.  So  I 
have  not  repaid  you  for  all  that  yon  have  done. 
I  must  go  back  now  to  my  own  people,  but  if 
I  can  ever  do  more  than  I  have  done  to  show 
you  how  grateful  I  am,  tell  me  of  it,  now  or 


58  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

when  the  time  comes,  and  nothing  will  please 
me  so  much  as  helping  you.' 

"  Bors  answered  first  and  said  :  '  One  thing 
I  have  thought  already  that  I  would  ask  of  you. 
We  have  never  seen  such  a  court  before  as 
that  you  keep.  Your  knights  are  the  bravest 
we  have  ever  found.  You  are  always  generous 
and  just  to  them,  and  to  all  your  people.  In 
their  battles  and  dangers  you  are  one  of  them. 
They  love  you  as  no  other  men  in  the  world 
love  their  king.  These  things  will  soon  be 
told  all  through  the  world,  and  then  the  brav- 
est and  noblest  everywhere  will  want  to  come 
to  you  and  be  your  knights.  Now  this  is  what 
I  ask:  I  have  a  son  whose  name  is  Bors,  like 
mine.  When  he  is  old  enough  I  wish  that  he 
might  be  made  a  knight  by  you  and  live  at 
your  court,  for  there  he  will  learn  all  that  is 
truest  and  noblest  and  gentlest  and  best  for  a 
good  knight  to  know.' 

" '  Let  him  come,'  said  Arthur, '  but  again  the 
favor  and  the  help  will  be  to  me,  not  to  you.' 
And  then  he  looked  at  King  Ban. 

"  '  I  cannot  ask  anything,'  said  Ban.  '  My 
brother  has  asked  the  best  gift  of  you  that 
any  king  could  ask.  I  would  ask  the  same,  but 
my  son  is  lost — my  Galahad.  Shall  I  tell  you 
how?  Once  this  same  Claudas  came  against 
my  castle  with  such  a  force  that  I  could  not  re- 
sist him.  To  save  my  wife  and  my  child  I  took 


The  Round  Table  59 

them  and  one  servant  with  me  and  we  left  the 
castle  at  night  No  one  saw  us  till  we  had 
gone  far  through  the  woods.  Then  we  met  two 
of  Claudas's  knights  and  I  and  my  servant  went 
forward  to  fight  with  them.  I  fell  and  the 
Queen  thought  that  I  was  wounded.  She  put 
the  child  down  on  the  ground  and  ran  to  help 
me.  When  she  saw  that  I  was  not  hurt  she 
went  back  to  find  the  child.  A  woman  sat  un- 
der a  tree,  holding  him  in  her  arms.  She  arose 
when  the  Queen  came  near  her,  went  to  the 
edge  of  a  lake  that  was  near,  and  jumped  in  with 
the  child.  Both  of  them  sank  out  of  sight  and 
we  have  never  seen  our  child  since  then.  Some 
have  told  us  that  it  was  the  Lad}-  of  the  Lake 
who  took  him.  They  say  that  he  is  not  dead, 
but  that  she  is  still  keeping  him  with  her  and 
is  teaching  him  all  that  a  young  knight  ought 
to  know.  It  ma}*  be  true,  but  I  do  not  hope  to 
see  him  again.  My  brother  has  asked  of  you 
the  best  of  gifts  for  his  son,  but  I  can  ask  noth- 
ing for  Galahad.' 

"  When  Ban  had  told  this  story  no  one  spoke 
at  first,  and  then  Merlin  said  :  '  My  lord,  the 
best  knight  who  will  ever  come  to  your  court 
will  be  Galahad.' 

••  Arthur  and  Ban  both  looked  at  him  with 
the  same  question  in  their  eyes :  '  Then  he  was 
not  drowned,  and  he  will  come  ! '  But  Merlin 
would  say  no  more.  He  only  repeated  :  '  The 


60          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

best  knight  who  will  ever  come  to  your  court 
will  be  Galahad.' 

"  And  Arthur  said  to  Ban  :  '  If  your  son 
lives  and  comes  to  me,  I  shall  welcome  him 
gladly  for  your  sake,  and  it  will  make  me  glad- 
dest of  all  if  my  best  knight  hereafter  shall 
remind  me  always  of  you,  who  are  my  best 
friend  now.' 

"  It  was  not  long  after  Arthur  had  come 
back  to  England  when  he  began  to  find  himself 
disturbed  in  a  new  way.  He  said  to  Merlin 
one  day  :  '  My  knights  and  my  lords  keep  com- 
plaining to  me.  They  say  it  is  not  right  that 
such  a  court  as  mine  should  have  only  a  king 
at  the  head  of  it,  and  that  it  ought  to  have  a 
queen,  too.' 

"  Now  of  course  I  don't  say  that  it  was 
really  the  knights  and  the  lords  who  were  most 
anxious  about  this :  I  only  say  that  that  was 
what  Arthur  told  Merlin.  You  know  very 
well  who  in  all  that  court  probably  thought 
most  about  a  queen.  If  Arthur  thought  that 
he  could  deceive  such  persons  as  you  and  Mer- 
lin and  I,  he  was  very  much  mistaken. 

"  But  Merlin  looked  very  serious  and  asked 
Arthur,  just  if  he  did  not  know  what  was 
coming,  if  he  had  thought  of  anybody  for  his 
queen. 

"  '  Yes,'  said  Arthur, '  Guinevere,  the  daugh- 
ter of  King  Leodogran.' 


The  Round  Table  61 

-  Merlin  did  not  look  so  glad  as  Arthur 
thought  he  ought  to  look.  It  most  be  very 
uncomfortable,  I  think,  to  know  as  much  as 
Merlin  knew.  "Will  yon  go  to  her  father; 
Arthur  went  on,  *  and  ask  him  to  give  her  to 
me,  and  will  you  bring  her  back  with  you  to 
Camelot?' 

44  Merlin  still  looked  grave  and  sad,  but  he 
only  said:  «  Yes,  I  wfll  go." 

"  And,  so,  not  many  days  after,  a  splendid 
procession  came  through  the  gate  of  Camelot 
and  up  the  street  to  the  castle  of  the  King. 
There  were  many  knights  of  King  Arthur  and 
many  knights  of  King  Leodogra~«,an  with  their 
gayest  armor  and  their  brightest  shields  and 
their  tallest  plumes,  and  in  the  midst  of  them 
all  rode  King  Arthur  himself  and  the  Princess 
Guinevere,  for  he  and  his  knights  had  gone 
out  to  meet  her.  And  Merlin  rode  before  them 
and  carried  his  banner,  with  the  fire-breathing 
dragon. 

"So  Guinevere  was  married  to  Arthur  in 
the  Church  of  St.  Stephen,  at  Camelot.  And 
when  they  came  from  the  church  to  the  great 
hall  of  the  castle  they  saw  a  strange  sight. 
For  there,  in  the  middle  of  the  hall,  stood  that 
wonderful  Round  Table  that  Merlin  had  made 
f or  Uther  Pendragon  so  long  ago.  All  around 
it  were  the  seats  for  the  knights,  and  there  was 
one  seat,  higher  and  wider  than  the  rest,  for 


62  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

the  King.  It  had  a  canopy  of  silk  above  it  and 
great  golden  dragons  all  around,  with  jew- 
elled eyes,  that  shone  like  fire. 

"  Then  Merlin  said :  '  King  Arthur,  this  is 
the  wedding-gift  that  King  Leodogran  has  sent 
to  you.  It  was  the  Round  Table  of  Uther, 
but  now  forever  all  the  world  shall  know  it  as 
the  Round  Table  of  Arthur.  Jjlere  are  s.eats 
for  a  Eufrdrod  and^fty^kmgHts.  King  Leodo- 
gran has  sent  you  a  hundred  knights ;  the  other 
seats  you  must  fill  yourself,  all  but  this  one 
next  your  own.  This  is  the  Siege  Perilous. 
While  you  live  and  reign  the  greatest  knights 
of  the  world  shall  sit  at  this  table,  but  in  the 
Siege  Perilous  no  one  shall  sit  till  the  one  best 
knight  of  all  the  world  comes  to  take  it.' 

"  Then,  as  they  looked  at  the  seats,  they  saw 
that  the  name  of  some  knight  was  in  each  one 
of  them,  in  letters  of  gold.  And  always  after 
that,  when  any  new  knight  was  to  sit  at  the 
Round  Table,  his  name  came  of  itself  in  letters 
of  gold  in  the  seat  that  he  was  to  have.  And 
now  Merlin  made  them  all  take  their  places 
and  hold  up  their  swords,  with  their  cross- 
shaped  hilts  high  above  their  heads,  and  take 
the  oath  of  the  Knights  of  the  Round  Table. 
'  Do  you  swear,'  he  said,  '  that  you  will  help 
the  King  to  guard  his'  people  and  to  keep  peace 
and  justice  in  his  land;  that  you  will  be  faith- 
ful to  your  fellows ;  that  you  will  do  right  to 


The  Round  Table  63 

poor  and  rich  alike?  Do  you  swear  that  in  all 
things  you  will  be  true  and  loyal  to  God  and 
to  the  King?' 

**  And  every  one  of  them  said :  *  I  swear  it.' 

*  And  there  were  the  hundred  knights  that 
Leodogran  had  sent,  and  there  were  Gawain 
and  U  wain  and  Gaheris  and  Agra  vain  and  Ec- 
tor  and  Kay  and  Lucan  and  Ulfius  and  Bras- 
tias  and  many  more  of  Arthur's  best  knights. 
And  as  long  as  Arthur  lived,  to  be  a  knight 
of  the  Round  Table  was  the  greatest  honor 
that  a  knight  could  have,  And  knights  and 
lords  and  even  kings  came  from  other  coun- 
tries to  sit  at  that  table.  And  some  who  might 
have  been  kings  in  their  own  countries  stayed 
here  always  to  be  Arthur's  knights.  For  they 
thought  it  was  a  greater  thing  to  be  called  a 
knight  of  that  Round  Table  than  to  be  called 
a  king  in  another  land ;  and  so  it  was." 

"And  yon  don't  believe,  after  all,"*  Helen 
asked,  "that  this  is  really  the  Round  Table, 
here  where  we  are  sitting?"* 

**  No,"  I  said ;  "just  while  we  sit  here  we  can 
make  believe  that  we  believe  that  it  is,  but  I 
don't  believe  it  really.*" 


CHAPTER  IV 

NOT  GALAHAD,  BUT  LANCELOT 

WE  left  the  field  of  the  Round  Table  and 
walked  back  toward  the  museum,  and  then 
down  to  the  river  and  across  the  bridge  and 
back.  As  we  looked  away  down  the  Usk  we 
wondered  if  the  view  was  much  changed  from 
the  one  that  Arthur  and  Guinevere  and  Mer- 
lin used  to  see.  A  pretty  view  it  was,  with 
hills  rising  from  the  river  in  gentle  slopes  and 
all  covered  with  green  woods.  It  would  have 
been  prettier  still  if  the  water  had  looked  clearer 
and  if  there  had  been  less  mud  on  the  banks. 

"  There  is  one  little  story  that  I  think  you 
ought  to  hear,"  I  said,  "  before  I  tell  you  any 
others,  though  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  Caer- 
leon.  It  belongs  to  Camelot,  where  you  know 
I  told  you  King  Arthur  lived  even  more  of  the 
time  than  here." 

"Are  we  going  to  Camelot,  too?"  Helen 
asked. 


Not  Galahad,  but  Lancelot          65 

*•  I  am  not  quite  sure  about  that,"  I  said. 
"  We  will  try  to.  The  trouble  is  that  there  is 
no  such  place  as  Camelot  now,  or,  at  any  rate, 
no  such  city,  and  nobody  knows  just  where  it 
was.  When  nobody  knows,  of  course  anybody 
has  a  right  to  guess.  So  one  says  that  Came- 
lot was  here  and  another  says  that  it  was  there. 
We  will  do  our  best  to  find  it,  but  the  worst 
of  it  will  be  that  we  shall  never  really  know 
whether  we  have  found  it  or  not. 

"  Well,  wherever  it  was,  it  was  a  beautiful 
city,  with  high  walls  around  it  and  great  gates 
in  them,  and  with  fine  houses  and  splendid 
churches.  And  Arthur  had  a  castle  there  even 
greater  and  more  beautiful  than  the  one  here 
at  CaerleoD.  And  once  the  ladies  of  the  castle 
stood  on  the  ramparts,  just  as  they  had  stood 
on  those  of  the  castle  of  King  Leodogran  when 
Arthur  came  to  Cameliard,  and  looked  down 
to  see  the  people  who  passed.  And  they  saw 
a  strange  little  procession  coming  slowly  along 
the  road  toward  the  castle.  It  was  very  different 
from  that  other  procession,  when  Arthur  and 
Ban  and  Bors  and  their  knights  marched  into 
the  city  up  in  the  North  to  save  the  old  King 
and  his  people.  There  were  knights  here,  too, 
and  squires,  and  they  rode  handsome  horses 
and  wore  rich  clothes.  And  two  of  the 
squires  led  the  most  beautiful  horse  of  all. 
It  was  pure  white,  with  flowing  mane  and  tail 


66          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

and  great  dark,  flashing  eyes.  On  its  back 
it  carried  an  armor  that  gleamed  in  the  sun 
as  if  it  were  made  all  of  silver,  and  a  shield. 
Another  squire  carried  a  shining  helmet, 
that  matched  the  armor,  and  another  car- 
ried a  sword  in  a  scabbard  set  all  over  with 
jewels. 

"  Behind  these  rode  a  young  squire  and  a 
woman.  The  young  squire  was  so  big  and 
well  formed,  and  he  had  a  face  that  was  so 
handsome  and  looked  so  brave  and  strong,  and 
yet  so  kind  and  sunny,  too,  that  I  am  sure  all 
the  girls  in  the  streets  of  Camelot  must  have 
stared  at  him  and  at  nothing  else,  as  he  passed 
along.  And  I  am  just  as  sure  that  the  men 
Avere  staring  at  the  woman  who  rode  beside 
him.  For  she  was  young — or  she  looked 
young,  and  that  is  the  same  thing  for  a  wom- 
an— and  she  was  beautiful,  too.  They  could 
not  see  much  of  her  face,  because  she  kept  it 
turned  toward  the  young  squire,  but  they 
could  see  the  curve  of  her  neck  and  her  dark 
masses  of  hair,  that  fell  almost  down  to  the 
horse's  back,  all  twisted  full  of  pearls.  She 
wore  a  wonderful,  long  silk  gown,  that  seemed 
always  changing  its  color  from  white  to  pale 
blue  and  back  to  white  again.  Sometimes  it 
shone  almost  like  the  steel  and  the  silver  of 
the  armors,  but  still  it  fluttered  in  the  little 
breezes  and  looked  as  soft  as  any  other  silk.  I 


Not  Galahad,  but  Lancelot          67 

suppose,  after  all,  the  women  noticed  this  more 
than  the  men  did. 

"The  young  squire  and  the  woman  rode 
close  together,  and  they  seemed  to  be  talking. 
But  the  woman  could  not  talk  much,  because 
there  were  so  many  tears  in  her  voice,  though 
there  were  few  in  her  eyes.  *  What  makes  you 
so  sorry,  Fairy  Mother  ? "  the  young  man  said. 
'  Am  I  not  to  be  a  knight  and  go  on  adven- 
tures and  do  brave  things,  as  you  have  told 
me,  and  does  not  that  make  you  glad  and 
proud?' 

" '  Oh,  yes,'  the  woman  answered,  •  I  am  glad 
and  proud  of  all  that,  but  I  am  sorry  that  I 
must  lose  you.  Perhaps  I  shall  not  see  you 
any  more,  and  surely  I  shall  not  see  you  every 
day,  as  I  have  all  these  years.' 

"The  young  man  himself  looked  sorry  at 
that.  *I  wish  I  could  stay  with  yon,  Fairy 
Mother,'  he  said ;  *  but  it  would  not  be  right, 
would  it,  for  a  strong  man  like  me  to  stay  at 
home  always  and  never  do  anything  good  or 
great  or  brave,  like  other  men  ? ' 

"'No,  no,  dear  Lancelot,  no/ she  said;  'it 
would  not  be  right.  I  know  that  yon  must 
come  to  the  King  now,  and  stay  with  him,  or 
go  where  he  sends  you,  and  belong  to  him  and 
to  all  the  world,  and  not  to  me  any  more.' 

"Though  the  squire  was  talking  with  the 
woman  by  his  side,  yet  all  the  while  he  was 


68  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

looking  at  the  streets  and  the  houses  and  the 
people,  as  if  he  had  never  seen  such  things  be- 
fore. And  just  now  the  little  procession  turned 
a  corner,  and  he  came  where  he  could  see  the 
castle  of  the  King,  its  big,  strong,  graceful 
towers,  its  high  walls  and  battlements,  and  the 
ladies  standing  there  and  looking  down  at  him 
and  the  others.  And  when  he  saw  the  whole 
castle  suddenly  before  him,  looking  so  grand 
and  stately,  his  first  thought  was :  '  Can  it  be 
that  the  great  King,  who  owns  all  this,  will  let 
me  stay  here  with  him  and  be  his  knight?  If 
he  only  will,  it  will  make  me  happy  all  my  life 
to  say  "  I  am  King  Arthur's  knight."  And  that 
Round  Table !  Can  I  hope  ever  to  sit  there, 
too,  among  the  best  of  all  his  knights  ? '  Then 
his  eyes  grew  brighter  and  his  whole  face 
glowed  with  the  joy  of  this  great  hope. 

"  It  was  just  then  that  he  saw  the  ladies  on 
the  wall,  and  he  looked  at  one  who  stood 
among  them,  and  after  that  he  scarcely  saw  the 
rest.  The  evening  sun  was  behind  her  and 
her  face  was  darkened,  but  he  could  see  it  a 
little,  and  he  thought:  'I  did  not  know  be- 
fore that  any  one  could  be  more  beautiful 
than  my  Fairy  Mother.'  And  as  he  saw  the 
soft,  low,  level  light  of  the  sun  shining 
through  the  gold  of  her  hair,  he  thought 
again :  '  She  wears  the  halo  of  a  saint.'  He 
could  not  look  away  from  her,  but  he  touched 


Not  Galahad,  but  Lancelot          69 

the  hand  of  the  woman  beside  him  and  whis- 
pered :  '  Who  is  she  ? ' 

"  And  she  answered  :  '  She  is  the  King's  wife, 
Queen  Guinevere.'  Then  suddenly  all  the 
light  went  out  of  the  young  man's  face,  and  he 
looked  down  at  his  horse's  neck,  and  he  did 
not  speak  again  till  they  came  to  the  castle 
gate. 

"  The  news  of  the  coming  of  the  strangers 
had  run  through  the  castle,  and  the  King  him- 
self came  down  to  the  gate  to  meet  them. 
The  young  squire  and  the  woman  dismounted 
from  the  horses  and  knelt  before  him.  '  My 
lord,'  she  said,  '  I  have  come  to  ask  a  gift  of 
you.  It  is  one  that  will  not  cause  you  any 
loss.' 

"You  know  in  those  days  kings  and  lords 
and  knights  had  a  way  of  promising  gifts  to 
people  before  they  knew  what  was  to  be  asked, 
and  they  were  as  honorable  about  keeping 
these  promises  as  they  were  stupid  about  mak- 
ing them.  But  Arthur  had  a  way  of  promis- 
ing that  he  would  give  what  was  asked,  if  it 
were  in  reason  and  if  it  were  not  against  his 
honor  or  his  kingdom.  And  some  such  answer 
as  this  he  made  to  this  woman. 

"  '  My  lord,'  she  said, '  here  is  a  young  squire, 
brave  and  of  high  birth ;  here  are  his  sword, 
his  armor,  and  his  horse ;  I  ask  you  to  make 
him  a  knight  whenever  he  shall  ask  it  of  you.' 


70          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

"  Then  Arthur  smiled  and  said :  '  You  told 
me  that  your  gift  should  be  no  loss  to  me. 
When  I  make  a  young  man  a  knight  I  like  to 
give  him  myself  his  horse,  his  armor,  and  his 
sword.  Is  it  not  a  loss  to  me  if  you  give  them 
to  him  instead  ? ' 

" '  Yet,  let  me  do  it,'  the  woman  answered. 
'  Since  he  was  a  little  child  all  that  he  has  had 
has  been  from  me,  and  these  things  are  the  last 
that  I  can  give  him.' 

"  '  It  shall  be  as  you  wish,'  said  the  King. 

"-'Then,' said  the  woman,  'I  must  go.'  She 
stooped  and  kissed  the  forehead  of  the  squire, 
who  still  knelt  before  the  King ;  then  she 
"turned  away,  sprang  upon  her  horse,  with  no 
one  to  help  her,  hid  her  face  in  her  veil,  and 
rode  away  from  the  gate.  For  a  moment  the 
King  scarcely  knew  what  she  was  doing.  'Do 
not  go  yet,'  he  said  ;  '  the  feast  of  St.  John  is 
coming  ;  stay  and  keep  it  with  us  and  see  your 
good  young  squire  made  a  knight.' 

"  But  she  was  gone  already.  The  young 
man  still  kneeling,  the  horse  with  the  armor 
on  its  back,  the  two  squires  who  led  it,  and  the 
others  who  carried  the  helmet  and  the  sword 
stayed  inside  the  gate.  All  the  rest  followed 
the  strange  woman  down  the  long  street  and 
out  from  the  gate  of  Camelot  and  away,  no- 
body knew  where. 

"  The    King  took  the   young   man's    hand, 


Not  Galahad,  but  Lancelot  71 

raised  him  up,  and  led  him  to  the  great  hall  of 
the  castle.  There  the  Queen  came  to  meet 
them  and  stood  beside  the  King.  *  And  now,' 
the  King  said, '  tell  us  who  you  are.' 

"  *  My  lord,'  the  young  man  answered,  *  my 
Fairy  Mother  has  told  me  that  I  am  King  Ban's 
son.' 

"  *  King  Ban's  son ! '  cried  the  King  ;  '  then 
you  are  a  thousand  times  welcome  here !  You 
are  that  Galahad  who  was  promised  to  me  as 
the  best  of  all  my  knights.' 

"  •  No,  my  lord,'  said  the  squire,  *  I  do  not 
hope  to  be  that,  and  I  am  not  Galahad.' 

"  •  But,'  said  the  King  again, '  are  not  you  that 
son  of  King  Ban  whom  some  woman  stole  from 
his  wife  and  carried  down  into  the  lake  and 
kept  ?  His  name  was  Galahad,  and  Merlin  said 
that  Galahad  should  be  my  best  knight." 

"  •  I  can  say  nothing  of  that,  my  lord,'  said 
the  squire.  '  If  Merlin  told  you  the  truth,  let 
him  make  his  own  words  good.  It  would 
make  me  very  proud  if  I  could  be  counted  the 
greatest  of  your  knights.  If  I  am  never  that, 
then  I  shall  be  glad  that  you  have  better 
knights  than  I.  But  for  my  name — I  never 
knew  my  real  father  or  mother,  and  I  do  not 
know  what  name  they  called  me  by.  ^\  knaw 
oaly.jnj£_gairy  Mother,  an^I— ndU^keep  the 
name  she  ggve  me — Lancelot  of  ±he  LaTceT*— 
Was  that  your  Fairy  Mother,  as  you  call 


72  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

her,'  said  the  King,  '  who  came  with  you  just 
now?  You  are  disobedient,  both  of  you.  She 
would  not  let  me  give  you  arms  and  you  will 
not  let  me  give  you  a  name.  But  you  may 
keep  whatever  name  you  like.  And  now  tell 
me  about  this  Fairy  Mother.  Who  is  she  ? 
Was  it  she  who  stole  you  from  your  real 
mother?  And  what  has  she  done  with  you  all 
the  years  since  then  ?  ' 

"  *  I  will  tell  you  all  that  I  can,'  the  young  man 
answered,  '  but  I  do  not  like  to  hear  you  talk 
about  her  stealing  me.  She  is  the  only  mother 
I  have  ever  known.  Her  name  is  Nimue,  and 
they  call  her  the  Lady  of  the  Lake.  I  cannot 
tell  you  just  what  that  means.  I  have  never 
seen  the  lake  but  once  in  all  the  years  that  I 
have  been  with  her.  I  have  heard  it  said  some- 
times that  there  was  no  lake  really,  but  only 
an  enchantment,  an  image  of  a  lake,  to  keep 
strangers  away  from  the  place  where  she  lived. 

" '  I  do  not  know  how  I  came  to  her  first,  but 
as  long  ago  as  I  can  remember  she  took  care 
of  me  and  taught  me.  I  was  her  page,  and  I 
learned  to  serve  her  and  her  maidens  as  a  good 
page  ought  to  serve  ladies,  and  I  learned  to  sing 
and  to  play  the  harp  a  little.  The  place  where 
we  lived  was  not  like  this.  It  was  a  beautiful 
place,  but  not  so  beautiful  as  this.  There  were 
fine  castles  and  gardens  and  a  river,  but  they 
did  not  look  like  these.  We  could  not  see  far 


Not  Galahad,  but  Lancelot  73 

away  to  where  the  sky  comes  down  and 
touches  the  hills,  as  we  can  here.  From  our 
tower  we  could  look  out  over  the  woods,  but 
not  very  far  away  it  all  seemed  to  stop,  and  we 
could  see  no  more.  The  sun  shone  warmer 
than  here,  yet  it  did  not  shine  so  bright.  The 
air  was  not  clear,  like  the  air  here.  It  was 
light,  but  it  was  all  misty,  and  the  sun  shone 
dim. 

"  •  We  had  many  knights  and  ladies  with  us, 
and  other  knights  and  ladies  came  often  to 
visit  us.  We  had  great  feasts  in  the  hall  of 
our  castle  and  we  had  hunts  and  tournaments. 
As  soon  as  I  could  hold  a  bow  and  arrow  they 
began  to  teach  me  to  shoot  with  them.  As 
soon  as  I  could  sit  upon  a  horse  I  began  to 
learn  to  ride,  and  when  I  was  old  enough  I 
rode  hunting  with  the  knights  and  the  young 
squires.  Then  my  Fairy  Mother  gave  me  a 
master,  who  taught  me  to  hold  a  spear  and 
how  to  run  with  it  against  a  quintain,  and  then 
against  another  man  on  another  horse.  Day 
after  day  and  month  after  month  he  taught  me, 
till  I  could  use  my  spear  better  than  he  could 
use  his.  He  taught  me  to  fight  with  the  sword, 
too,  and  still  I  practised  with  both  till  none  of 
the  knights  who  lived  about  us  and  none  of 
the  knights  who  came  to  visit  us  could  stand 
against  me  in  a  fight  with  either.  And  when 
in  some  trial  I  had  beaten  all  the  rest,  my  Fairy 


74          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

Mother  would  take  off  my  helmet  and  kiss  me 
and  say  that  I  should  be  the  best  knight  of  the 
world  some  day.  I  only  tell  you  what  she 
said ;  you  know,  my  lord,  she  loved  me  so 
much. 

44 '  Once,  not  very  long  ago,  when  some  of  us 
were  hunting,  I  rode  far  away  from  the  rest, 
and  farther  away  from  where  we  lived  than  I 
had  ever  been  before.  And  suddenly  it  seemed 
to  me  that  I  was  in  a  more  beautiful  place  than 
I  had  ever  seen.  There  was  sunlight  all  around 
me,  brighter  than  I  had  ever  known,  sunlight 
like  this  around  us  here.  The  sun  itself  was  so 
bright  that  I  could  not  look  at  it — not  dusky, 
as  it  was  where  we  lived.  I  could  look  far 
away  and  see  the  blue  sky  everywhere,  as  you 
can  here.  It  was  all  so  lovely  that  I  stayed  for 
a  long  time  to  look,  and  then,  when  I  thought 
that  it  was  time  for  me  to  go  back  to  my 
friends,  I  could  not  find  the  way.  I  turned  the 
way  that  it  seemed  to  me  I  ought  to  go,  and 
there  was  nothing  there  but  a  broad  lake,  with 
that  strange,  clear  sunlight  shining  on  it. 
Then,  as  I  came  near  the  lake,  I  saw  my  Fairy 
Mother  coming  from  its  bank.  44  Give  me 
your  hand,"  she  said,  and  she  sprang  on  my 
horse's  back  behind  me.  She  put  her  arms 
around  me,  just  as  she  used  to  do  when  I  first 
learned  to  sit  upon  a  horse,  and  took  the  reins 
out  of  my  hands,  and  we  rode  toward  the  lake. 


Not  Galahad,  but  Lancelot  75 

And  then,  all  at  once,  I  cannot  tell  you  how, 
the  lake  was  gone,  and  soon  we  were  in  places 
that  I  knew,  and  all  the  beautiful  sunlight  was 
gone,  and  then  we  were  at  home. 

"'That  night,  I  do  not  know  whether  I 
was  awake  or  dreaming,  but  I  thought  that  my 
Fairy  Mother  came  and  stood  beside  me.  She 
wept  and  said  :  "  My  little  Lancelot — my  great 
Lancelot — you  have  grown  too  big  to  stay  here 
with  me  any  more.  I  cannot  keep  you  here 
and  love  you  all  alone  any  longer.  You  must 
go  out  into  the  world,  where  the  King  and  the 
Queen  and  every  one  will  love  you,  where  you 
can  live  and  fight  with  other  knights  and  be 
the  best  of  them  all."  I  only  tell  you  what  she 
said,  my  lord. 

"  *  And  I  do  not  know  whether  she  had  told 
me  of  you  before,  my  lord,  or  whether  I  had 
heard  of  you  from  the  knights  and  ladies  who 
came  to  visit  us,  but  somehow  I  knew  that 
your  court  was  the  finest  and  that  your 
knights  were  the  bravest  and  the  greatest  in 
the  world.  And  so,  when  she  told  me  that  I 
must  come  to  Arthur's  court,  I  knew  that  I 
was  to  serve  the  noblest  of  kings.  So  here 
I  have  come,  my  lord,  to  ask  that  I  may  be 
your  knight.' 

"  Now,  all  the  time  that  the  young  squire 
had  been  telling  this  story  he  had  been  looking 
first  at  the  King  and  then  at  the  Queen,  as 


76  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

they  stood  together  before  him,  listening  to 
every  word  that  he  said.  He  could  see  the 
Queen's  face  clearly  now,  of  course,  and  as  she 
stood  there  so  near  him,  listening  and  looking 
into  his  face  with  her  beautiful,  kind  eyes,  he 
almost  forgot  what  he  was  telling,  and  he 
thought :  '  I  shall  never  see  any  other  woman 
like  her,  and,  since  she  is  the  King's  and  can 
never  be  mine,  will  it  be  well  for  me  to  stay 
here  ?  Shall  I  not  be  happier  if  I  go  away  and 
try  to  forget  her?'  But  when  he  looked  at  the 
King  again  and  met  his  eyes,  which  were  just 
as  kind,  and  saw  how  strong  and  noble  and 
gentle  he  looked,  he  thought  again :  '  I  will 
not  be  such  a  coward  as  to  run  away.  I  will 
stay  and  be  her  knight  and  the  King's,  and  in 
all  my  battles  I  will  remember  her  and  think 
that  I  am  fighting  for  her.' 

" '  It  is  a  strange  story  that  you  have  told 
us,'  said  the  King.  '  Indeed  your  Fairy 
Mother  kept  you  and  taught  you  well,  and  it 
is  right  that  you  should  hold  to  the  name  she 
gave  you,  if  you  will.  We  will  call  you  Lance- 
lot, then,  and  still,  for  your  father's  sake,  you 
shall  sit  at  my  Round  Table  as  soon  as  you 
are  a  knight.' 

"And  Lancelot  only  bowed  and  kissed  the 
King's  hand,  but  to  himself  he  said  :  '  Yes,  I 
will  stay  and  live  and  fight  for  both  of  them. 
It  will  be  glory  and  happiness  enough  to  be 


Not  Galahad,  but  Lancelot  77 

the  greatest  or  the  least  of  the  knights  of  such 
a  king.' 

"  I  sometimes  think  that  it  would  have  been 
better  if  Lancelot  had  left  Camelot  then  and 
left  England  and  had  never  come  back.  Some- 
times the  bravest  men  would  prove  themselves 
braver  if  they  would  only  dare  to  be  afraid. 
And  yet,  I  cannot  think  what  the  court  of 
King  Arthur  would  have  been  without  Lance- 
lot. Of  one  thing  I  am  sure :  there  would  not 
have  been  so  many  good  stories. 

"'And  when,'  said  the  King,  'shall  I  make 
you  a  knight?' 

"'May  it  be  to-morrow,  my  lord?'  said 
Lancelot 

" '  Yes,'  said  the  King, '  if  you  wish  it ;  come 
here  again  at  noon.' 

"  Then  Lancelot  went  to  the  Church  of  St. 
Stephen,  and  there,  all  night,  before  the  altar, 
he  watched  his  armor.  There  were  others 
there,  who  were  to  be  made  knights  to-mor- 
row, doing  the  same.  Lancelot  scarcely  saw 
them.  He  scarcely  saw  his  armor  there  before 
him.  What  he  did  see,  all  through  that  night, 
was  the  lovely  face  of  the  Queen,  with  the 
sweet,  kind  eyes  bent  on  him,  as  he  had  seen 
them  when  he  told  his  story.  The  candles  on 
the  altar  seemed  shining  through  her  hair,  as 
the  sun  had  shone  through  it  when  she  stood 
on  the  castle  wall.  And  when  the  early  sum- 


78  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

mer  sun  lighted  the  windows  of  the  church  and 
the  candles  began  to  look  dim,  he  saw  her  still. 
He  was  thinking  of  her  when  he  left  the  church 
and  went  to  make  ready  to  meet  the  King. 

"  He  was  thinking  of  her  when  he  came  into 
the  great  hall  of  the  castle,  and  he  scarcely 
more  than  noticed  all  the  people  who  were 
there.  The  hall  was  filled  with  ladies  and 
knights,  and  squires  who  were  to  be  knights 
to-day.  The  King  came  and  stood  at  the  far 
end  of  the  hall.  He  was  ready  for  those  to 
whom  he  was  to  give  knighthood.  And  then, 
all  at  once,  Lancelot  noticed  a  terrible  thing. 
He  had  no  sword.  He  had  not  thought  of  it 
before,  and  he  had  left  it  in  the  church.  Now 
indeed  he  saw  the  people  about  him.  They 
were  all  looking  at  him,  he  thought,  and  he 
saw  all  their  faces  dance  and  swim  and  whirl 
around  him  and  all  their  eyes  fixed  upon  him. 
He  was  ready  to  turn  and  run  from  the  place, 
for  he  thought :  '  How  they  will  all  laugh  at 
me  when  they  see  that  I  have  no  sword  !  And 
the  King  will  say  that  1  am  not  worthy  to  be 
a  knight.' 

"  And  just  at  that  moment  he  heard  a  voice 
behind  him,  and  the  voice  said :  '  Young  man, 
do  not  turn  to  look  at  me  or  some  one  may  see 
us.  I  have  brought  you  your  sword.  It  is 
here  in  the  fold  of  my  gown.  Take  it  as  I  pass 
you,  but  do  not  turn  your  head/ 


Not  Galahad,  but  Lancelot  79 

"  The  swarming  faces  around  him  were 
gone,  and  he  scarcely  understood  what  the 
voice  behind  him  had  said,  because  the  voice 
itself  was  so  sweet.  And  his  heart  gave  a 
great  leap,  as  he  thought :  '  That  voice  is  as 
lovely  as  the  face  of  the  Queen.  Are  there 
more  of  them,  then  ?  Is  this  court  of  Arthur 
full  of  such  women  as  she  ? '  But  as  the  wom- 
an whp__had  spoken  passed  him  he  took  tEe 
sword  from  her  hand,  and  he  did  not  turn  his 
head,  butwEen^  she  had  passed  and  was  in 
front  of  him  he  looked  at  her.  She  was  the 
Queen. 

"Tle^could  not  think  any  more  now.  It  was 
time,  and  he  passed  forward  through  the  hall, 
knelt  down  and  laid  his  sword  at  the  feet  of  the 
King.  Dimly  he  heard  the  King  speaking  to 
him  the  oath  for  a  new  knight — that  he  should 
be  faithful,  gentle,  and  merciful — that  he  should 
fight  for  the  poor — that  he  should  fear  shame 
more  than  death.  But  he  knew  what  the  oath 
was  and  they  all  heard  him  when  he  said :  '  I 
swear  it.' 

"Then  two  old  knights  fastened  his  spurs, 
and  the  Queen  herself  came  and  belted  on  his 
sword.  As  she  did  it  the  new  knight  gazed 
into  her  face  again,  and,  a  moment  later,  when 
the  King  gave  him  the  oath  of  the  Round 
Table  and  he  swore  to  be  true  and  loyal  in  all 
things  to  God  and  to  the  King,  he  added,  in 


8o          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

his  own  mind  :  '  and  to  the  Queen.'  But  he 
did  not  see  her  then.  His  eyes  looked  straight 
into  the  King's.  And  it  seemed  to  Arthur 
that  he  saw  in  those  eyes  something  great  and 
wonderful,  that  he  had  never  seen  before  in 
any  knight  who  had  sworn  this  oath.  He 
could  not  tell  what  it  was,  but  it  was  something 
that  made  him  say:  'Oh,  Galahad  or  Lance- 
lot, I  know  that  you  will  be  my  best  knight. 
Come  and  take  the  place  that  has  been  made 
for  you.' 

"  And  he  led  him  straight  to  the  Siege  Peril- 
ous and  said :  '  Sit  here ;  it  is  your  place.' 
Yet,  when  the  new  knight  would  have  taken 
the  seat,  the  King  himself  held  him  back,  for 
he  looked  and  there  were  no  letters  in  it.  The 
King  looked  and  wondered  and  paused.  It 
seemed  to  him  that  the  magic  of  the  seats  must 
be  sleeping  and  that  soon  the  letters  must  ap- 
pear. But  no  letters  came,  and  the  King 
turned  and  led  the  way  to  the  next  seat,  at  the 
right  of  the  Siege  Perilous.  It  was  blank  too, 
and  the  King  looked  in  the  next,  and  so  was 
that.  But  when  he  came  to  the  fourth  seat,  he 
and  the  knight  saw  in  it  the  name,  in  new  let- 
ters of  bright  gold — not '  Galahad,'  but  '  Lance- 
lot of  the  Lake.' 

"And  Lancelot  took  the  seat,  and  in  that 
seat  he  sat  for  many  years,  whenever  he  was  in 
Arthur's  court.  And  the  fame  of  Lancelot 


Not  Galahad,  but  Lancelot          8 1 

grew  all  through  those  many  years,  with  the 
fame  of  Arthur's  court.  For  all  over  the  world 
it  was  said  that  there  was  no  other  court  like 
Arthur's,  and  that  there  was  no  other  knight 
like  Lancelot.  He  was  the  bravest  knight  in 
battle,  they  said,  and  in  the  tournament  the 
strongest,  and  everywhere  he  was  the  truest, 
the  noblest,  and  the  gentlest.  All  good  knights 
wished  that  they  might  be  like  him,  and  the 
King  and  the  Queen  loved  him  more  than  any 
other. 

"And  often  in  those  years  Arthur  would 
gaze  and  gaze  at  him,  and  then  at  the  Siege 
Perilous,  and  would  think :  « Why  does  he  not 
take  his  place  ?  Why  can  I  not  read  his  name 
in  that  seat?  What  better  knight  than  he  can 
I  ever  have?  Who  can  ever  sit  there  if  he 
canapt?' 

"But  no  gold  letters  came  in  the  Siege 
Perilous.  And  after  a  time  there  came  to  the 
court  a  strong  young  man,  Bors,  Lancelot's 
cousin,  the  son  of  King  Bors.  And  when  Ar- 
thur made  him  a  knight  and  led  him  to  the 
Round  Table,  his  name  was  found  in  the  seat 
next  to  Lancelot's  and  nearer  to  the  Siege 
Perilous,  nearer  to  the  throne.  Then  Arthur 
wondered  more,  for  though  Bors  was  strong 
and  brave  and  noble,  he  never  seemed  so 
good  a  knight  as  Lancelot,  in  the  battle  or  the 
tournament.  So  knights  came  and  went  and 


82          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

knights  were  killed  in  battle  and  new  knights 
came.  And  seats  were  left  empty  at  the  Round 
Table  and  other  names  came  in  them  and 
other  knights  sat  in  them.  Yet  no  name  came 
in  the  Siege  Perilous." 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    KITCHEN    BOY 

WE  still  had  an  hour  or  more  to  wait,  be- 
fore the  train  would  come  that  was  to  take  us 
away  from  Caerleon.  It  was  luncheon-time, 
too,  and  so,  if  we  could  find  the  luncheon,  we 
did  not  mind  the  waiting.  There  was  a  little 
house  near  the  railway  station,  and  a  lantern 
with  a  picture  of  an  angel  hung  over  the  door. 
We  thought  that  we  might  find  something  to 
eat  in  it.  A  woman  stood  behind  the  bar  and 
two  men  stood  in  front  of  it,  drinking  and 
talking  with  the  woman.  Of  all  the  people 
who  had  wondered  at  our  coming  to  Caerleon 
not  one  had  yet  been  so  astonished  as  that  wom- 
an was  when  we  asked  her  if  we  could  have 
luncheon.  She  could  not  speak  for  a  minute, 
and  then  she  said  that  she  was  afraid  she  could 
not  give  us  anything,  and  that  this  was  not  an 
hotel. 

If  we  had  been  English  people  we    should 


84          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

probably  have  said  something  meant  to  be  very 
cutting  about  the  word  "  Hotel  "  being  on  the 
lantern  over  the  door,  in  very  plain  letters. 
But,  being  only  common  Americans,  we  took 
it  very  mildly  and  asked  her  if  she  could  not 
possibly  find  anything  at  all ;  some  bread  and 
cheese  and  tea  would  do.  Oh,  yes,  we  could 
have  those,  she  said,  and  she  led  us  into  a  little 
room  behind  the  bar,  where  there  were  some 
chairs  and  a  table.  The  two  men  drank  up 
their  beer  as  fast  as  they  could  and  hurried 
away  to  call  the  rest  of  the  people  of  the  town 
together  by  telling  them  that  three  strangers 
had  come  to  the  Angel  and  asked  for  luncheon. 
Probably  the  rest  of  the  people  refused  to  be- 
lieve it,  for  none  of  them  came  to  look  at  us. 
I  may  as  well  say  now,  because  I  may  forget 
it  by  and  by,  that  the  luncheon  cost  us  four- 
pence  each. 

"  There  was  a  time,'  I  said,  as  we  sat  in  the 
little  room  behind  the  bar,  "  when  strangers 
who  came  to  Caerleon  and  asked  for  something 
to  eat  and  drink  were  treated  better  than  this. 
There  was  the  kitchen  boy,  for  instance." 

Of  course  Helen  must  have  known,  when 
she  heard  that,  that  there  was  some  sort  of 
story  about  the  kitchen  boy,  and  she  ought  to 
have  asked  what  it  was.  But  I  suppose  she 
thought  that  I  would  tell  it  any  way  and  there 
was  no  need  of  her  asking  me  to.  So  she  went 


The  Kitchen  Boy  85 

on  drinking  her  tea,  into  which  her  mother 
had  put  a  great  deal  of  hot  water,  because  that 
is  the  right  way  to  make  tea  for  little  girls,  and 
all  she  said  was  that  she  would  take  a  little 
more  butter,  please.  Now  of  course  this  was 
wrong.  Children  should  be  heard  as  well  as 
seen,  when  they  really  have  anything  to  say.  I 
knew  she  was  dying  to  hear  that  story,  still  she 
ought  to  have  said  so.  I  had  half  a  mind  not 
to  tell  it  at  all,  but  then,  nobody  ever  began  to 
tell  a  story  and  then  stopped  just  because  the 
other  people  kept  still  and  listened. 

So  I  waited  a  little,  to  show  how  hurt  I  felt, 
and  then  I  said :  "  You  see,  King  Arthur  and 
his  knights  had  a  good  deal  of  fighting  to  do 
at  first.  They  had  to  beat  the  rebels  all  around 
them ;  they  had  to  drive  away  the  Saxons, 
who  were  trying  to  win  the  land  and  destroy 
the  people ;  and  once,  the  old  books  say,  the 
Emperor  of  Rome  sent  ambassadors  to  Arthur 
to  demand  of  him  the  tribute  that  the  Emperor 
said  was  due  from  England  to  Rome.  Arthur 
gave  the  ambassadors  a  fine  banquet  and  costly 
presents  for  themselves,  but  no  tribute  for  the 
Emperor.  Then  he  and  his  army  crossed  the 
channel  and  beat  the  Emperor  in  a  great  battle 
and  went  on  to  Rome,  and  there  Arthur  him- 
self was  crowned  Emperor.  You  may  believe 
this  story  or  not,  as  you  like.  I  don't  more 
than  half  believe  it  myself.  But  in  all  Arthur's 


86          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

battles,  and  in  all  adventures,  when  there  were 
no  battles,  Lancelot  was  counted  the  best  of 
his  knights.  And  of  the  others  there  was  none 
who  grew  more  famous  than  Gawain.  You 
will  hear  much  of  him  some  time,  and  so  I 
should  like  to  make  you  understand  what  sort 
of  a  man  he  was. 

"  He  was  a  king's  son,  and  he  lived  first  at 
his  father's  court  and  then  at  Arthur's.  And 
so  he  learned  all  that  could  be  learned  to  make 
a  good  knight.  He  was  brave  and  he  was 
strong  and  skilful  with  his  spear  and  his  sword. 
It  was  said  that  he  was  the  most  courteous 
knight  of  Arthur's  court,  though  I  do  not  be- 
lieve that  any  one  could  be  more  courteous 
than  Lancelot.  Some  of  the  old  books  say, 
too,  that  he  could  speak  so  well  that  nobody 
could  ever  refuse  him  anything  that  he  asked. 
He  knew  all  that  belonged  to  true  knighthood 
and  he  loved  justice  and  right  and  truth  and 
courtesy,  when  they  were  on  his  side,  or  when 
he  had  no  side.  For  I  believe  that  his  own 
real  nature  was  not  great  and  generous,  like 
Lancelot's.  No  one  knew  what  was  brave  and 
right  better  than  he,  but  he  was  selfish  and 
hasty  and  he  often  forgot  what  was  right,  or 
else  saw  the  right  and  chose  the  wrong,  be- 
cause it  suited  his  purpose  better.  And  so  he 
often  did  things  that  made  him  sorry  after- 
ward. Still,  he  did  so  much  that  was  good, 


The  Kitchen  Boy  87 

too,  that  he  was  always  counted  one  of  the  best 
of  Arthur's  knights. 

"  Well,  if  King  Arthur  and  his  army  really 
went  to  Rome,  they  soon  came  back,  and  if 
they  did  not  go,  of  course  they  did  not  have 
to  come  back.  And  wherever  they  went  and 
whenever  they  came,  King  Arthur  almost  al- 
ways managed  to  keep  the  great  feast  of  Pente- 
cost here  at  Caerleon.  You  have  found  out, 
long  before  this,  what  queer  notions  some  of  the 
people  had  in  those  days.  Even  King  Arthur 
had  a  few  of  them,  and  one  of  his  was  that  he 
would  never  go  to  dinner  on  Pentecost  till  he 
had  seen  some  wonderful  thing.  And  won- 
derful things  were  so  common  then  that,  as 
far  as  I  have  ever  heard  or  read,  he  did  not 
lose  a  Pentecost  dinner  in  his  whole  reign,  and 
only  once  was  he  even  late  for  dinner. 

"  So,  one  Pentecost,  King  Arthur  and  Queen 
Guinevere  and  the  knights  of  the  court  sat  in 
the  great  hall  of  the  castle  and  waited  for  some- 
thing to  happen,  so  that  they  could  go  to  din- 
ner. They  would  all  have  been  delighted  if 
somebody  had  run  in  and  had  told  them  that 
there  was  a  snake  a  mile  long  coiled  three 
times  around  some  castle  somewhere,  and  that 
the  lady  in  the  castle  wanted  a  knight  to  come 
and  kill  the  snake,  so  that  she  could  get  out. 
Every  one  of  them  would  have  wanted  to  go, 
and  nothing  but  their  politeness  would  have 


88          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

kept  them  from  saying  so  all  at  once.  But 
they  did  not  like  to  have  any  delay  about  din- 
ner. 

"  And  just  a  few  minutes  before  dinner-time 
three  men  came  into  the  hall  and  stood  before 
the  King.  One  of  them  was  taller  than  the 
others,  but  young — no  more  than  a  boy,  as  it 
seemed.  He  stood  between  the  other  two  and 
leaned  on  their  shoulders,  as  if  he  could  not 
walk  alone.  Then,  when  they  were  before  the 
King,  he  pushed  them  from  him,  and  said  :  '  My 
lord,  I  have  come  to  ask  three  gifts  of  you — 
easy  gifts  for  you  to  grant.  One  of  them  I  will 
ask  now  and  the  other  two  I  will  ask  a  year 
from  this  day.' 

"  When  Arthur  looked  in  the  boy's  face  he 
saw  that  flush  of  frank,  free  courage,  and  that 
fine,  glad  light  in  the  eyes  that  he  loved  so 
much  in  his  younger  knights.  '  Surely,'  he 
thought,  '  I  have  none  of  a  better  look  than  he, 
unless  Lancelot  or  Gawain.'  And  he  said: 
'Ask  what  you  will.' 

'"It  is  only,'  said  the  boy,  'that  you  will 
give  me  all  I  need  to  eat  and  drink  for  a  year. 
At  the  end  of  the  year  I  will  ask  my  other 
gifts.' 

"  If  the  boy  had  asked  for  a  castle  or  a  city 
or  two,  King  Arthur  might  not  have  been  sur- 
prised, but  now  he  was  surprised.  '  Can  I  not 
give  you  more  than  that  ?  '  he  said.  '  I  would 


The  Kitchen  Boy  89 

give  that  to  any  beggar,  but  you  look  like  one 
who  will  be  a  great  and  brave  man  some  day. 
Ask  something  more  of  me.  What  is  your 
name?' 

" '  I  will  not  tell  you  my  name  now/  said  the 
boy, '  and  I  will  ask  nothing  more.' 

" '  Let  it  be  as  you  please/  said  the  King, 
'  but  your  gift  is  one  for  Sir  Kay  to  give  you,  not 
for  me.'  Then  he  called  Sir  Kay,  his  seneschal, 
and  said :  '  Take  the  boy  and  give  him  every- 
thing he  needs,  as  if  he  were  a  lord's  son.1 

"'There  will  be  no  need  of  that,'  Kay  an- 
swered ;  '  he  is  no  doubt  some  common  fellow. 
If  he  were  a  lord's  son  he  would  ask  for  a 
horse  or  armor  or  something  else  worth  hav- 
ing. But  he  shall  have  enough  to  eat  and  he 
shall  work  with  the  other  boys  in  the  kitchen. 
He  wants  to  get  his  food  and  drink  for  noth- 
ing, I  suppose.  Look  at  his  big,  white  hands. 
If  he  will  not  tell  us  his  name  I  will  give  him 
one.  We  will  call  him  Fairhands.' 

"  Now  King  Arthur  thought  that  all  this  was 
quite  as  wonderful  as  anything  he  was  likely  to 
see,  so  he  felt  that  he  had  a  right  to  go  to  din- 
ner. The  two  men  who  had  come  with  the 
boy  went  away,  and  Fairhands,  as  Kay  called 
him,  was  sent  down  to  the  far  end  of  the  hall, 
among  the  other  boys.  There  he  ate  his  din- 
ner, and  when  it  was  over,  Kay  sent  him  to  the 
kitchen  and  he  was  set  to  work. 


90  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

11  And  every  day  for  a  whole  year  he  was 
there  in  the  kitchen.  He  built  fires  and  brought 
water  and  scoured  pots  and  pans.  He  ate 
what  the  other  boys  ate,  and  never  complained 
that  he  had  too  much  work  or  too  little  play. 
He  did  have  some  play,  for  the  boys  had  games 
of  strength  and  skill  among  themselves,  and  he 
was  the  best  at  all  of  them.  And  always,  when 
he  was  not  at  work,  he  liked  to  be  where  he 
could  see  the  knights.  He  always  tried  to  see 
the  tournaments.  He  almost  held  his  breath 
when  the  knights  clashed  together,  and  he 
threw  up  his  cap  and  cheered  when  Lancelot 
and  Gawain  did  best  among  the  knights,  as 
they  always  did. 

"  For  Lancelot  and  Gawain  were  his  friends. 
They  had  seen  him  when  he  came  into  the  hall 
and  asked  the  King  for  food  and  drink.  They 
did  not  believe,  like  the  sharp-tongued  Kay,  that 
he  was  some  common  fellow.  They  saw  his 
fine,  clear  eyes,  and  the  courage  in  his  face  and 
the  strong,  graceful,  easy  way  in  which  he 
bore  himself.  They  wondered  why  he  would 
not  tell  his  name,  but  they  believed  that  some 
time  he  would  make  it  known  all  through  the 
world.  So  they  would  call  him  often  from 
among  the  other  boys  and  take  him  to  their 
own  rooms  in  the  castle.  They  asked  him  his 
name  many  times,  but  he  would  never  tell 
them.  They  offered  him  better  things  to  eat 


The  Kitchen  Boy  91 

than  the  boys  in  the  kitchen  had,  but  he  would 
take  nothing.  He  would  have  nothing,  he 
said,  but  what  Kay  gave  him,  till  the  time 
came  for  him  to  ask  his  other  gifts  of  the  King. 

"  And  when  Pentecost  came  again  the  court 
was  here  at  Caerleon,  and  the  King  and  the 
Queen  and  the  knights  sat  in  the  great  hall  of 
the  castle,  waiting  again  for  something  wonder- 
ful to  happen,  so  that  they  could  have  dinner. 
Then,  as  they  waited,  they  heard  a  horse's 
hoofs  in  the  court-yard,  and  in  a  moment  a  girl 
ran  into  the  hall  and  went  straight  toward  the 
King.  She  knelt  before  him  and  cried :  '  My 
lord,  a  wicked  knight  is  keeping  my  sister 
prisoner,  and  she  has  sent  me  to  ask  that  you 
will  send  some  one  of  your  knights  to  fight 
with  him  and  free  her.' 

" '  Where  is  your  sister  ? '  the  King  asked. 
'How  does  the  knight  keep  her  a  prisoner? 
What  is  her  name  and  what  is  yours? ' 

"  *  I  must  not  tell  you  her  name  or  mine,'  the 
girl  answered,  '  but  she  lives  in  the  Castle  Per- 
ilous, and  she  is  a  great  lady.  The  knight  is 
called  the  Red  Knight  of  the  Red  Plains.  He 
stays  before  the  gate  of  the  castle  and  fights 
with  all  the  knights  that  come  to  free  her,  and 
kills  them,  and  he  will  not  let  anybody  come 
into  the  castle  or  go  out  of  it,  unless  he  chooses. 
But  we  heard  that  the  best  knights  of  the  world 
were  in  your  court,  and  my  sister  told  me  to 


92  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

say  that  if  one  of  them  would  come  and  kill 
the  wicked  knight  she  would  marry  him  and 
he  should  have  her  castle  and  all  her  lands.' 

"  Of  all  the  strange  notions  of  those  days  I 
think  that  pretty  nearly  the  strangest  were 
those  that  some  people  had  about  keeping  their 
names  secret.  There  was  no  reason  in  the 
world,  that  I  can  see,  why  this  girl  should  not 
tell  her  name,  yet  I  suppose  she  would  rather 
let  her  sister  stay  shut  up  in  her  castle  for  the 
rest  of  her  life  than  tell  it,  when  she  had  made 
up  her  mind  not  to. 

"  '  I  have  knights  here,  no  doubt,'  said  the 
King,  '  who  could  beat  the  Red  Knight  of  the 
Red  Plains  and  free  your  sister,  but  I  cannot 
send  any  of  them  unless  you  tell  me  your  name 
and  hers.' 

" '  Then  I  must  look  for  a  knight  somewhere 
else,'  said  the  girl,  and  she  turned  to  go  out  of 
the  hall. 

"Then,  from  among  those  who  stood  far 
down  the  hall,  away  from  the  King  and  the 
girl,  came  a  voice  that  cried :  '  My  lord,  my 
lord,  a  year  ago  you  promised  me  two  gifts; 
the  time  has  come  for  me  to  ask  them.' 

"  The  King  looked  to  see  whose  voice  it  was, 
and  saw  the  kitchen  boy.  He  remembered 
what  had  passed  a  year  ago,  and  said  :  '  Yes, 
the  time  has  come ;  ask  your  gifts.' 

"  The  kitchen  boy  knelt  before  the  King  and 


The  Kitchen  Boy  93 

said :  '  My  lord,  send  me  with  this  damsel  to 
free  her  sister.  This  is  the  first  gift  I  ask.' 

"  •  You  always  ask  things  that  are  hard  for 
me  to  give,'  the  King  answered.  *  This  is  not 
an  adventure  for  you  to  try.  Did  you  not 
hear  her  say  that  this  Red  Knight  of  the  Red 
Plains  had  killed  other  knights  who  had  come 
to  free  her  sister  ?  You  are  little  more  than  a 
boy  yet.  Leave  such  hard  fighting  for  harder 
and  older  men.  Stay  here  at  my  court ;  leave 
the  kitchen ;  practise  with  the  young  squires ; 
learn  how  to  sit  upon  your  horse  and  how  to 
use  your  spear  and  your  shield  and  your 
sword.  Then  you  can  fight  as  well  as  the 
bravest.  Do  not  try  too  much  now  and  make 
me  lose  such  a  good  knight  as  you  might  grow 
to  be.' 

"'Perhaps,  my  lord,'  said  the  kitchen  boy, 
'  I  know  more  of  these  things  already  than  you 
think,  and  it  is  this  that  I  ask.  It  is  not  against 
your  honor  to  give  it  to  me,  and  you  cannot 
deny  me  my  two  gifts.  Let  me  go  to  free  this 
lady.' 

"  Then,  as  the  King  gazed  into  the  boy's 
eyes,  that  were  looking  straight  into  his,  it 
seemed  to  him  that  he  lost  sight  of  the  poor 
kitchen  garments  and  saw  only  the  bright 
young  face  and  the  frank,  free  courage,  as  he 
had  seen  it  before,  and  again  he  thought :  *  I 
have  none  of  a  better  look  than  he,  unless 


94          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

Lancelot  or  Gawain.'  And  still  the  eyes 
begged  of  him :  '  Let  me  go,'  and  the  King 
nodded  and  answered  them  :  '  Go,  if  you  will.' 

"'And  my  other  gift,  my  last  one,'  said  the 
boy ;  '  it  is  this :  I  have  long  wished  that  Sir 
Lancelot  might  make  me  a  knight — Sir  Lance- 
lot, and  no  one  else.  Let  him  follow  me,  as  I 
go  away  with  the  damsel,  and  let  him  make 
me  a  knight  whenever  1  ask  him.' 

" '  That  gift  I  will  give  you,'  said  the  King, 
'  most  gladly  of  all,'  and  he  turned  and  nodded 
toward  Lancelot.  And  Lancelot  looked  more 
proud  to  hear  the  boy  ask  this  than  he  would 
have  looked  if  he  had  fought  and  beaten  the 
greatest  knight  of  all  the  world  except  him- 
self. I  do  not  believe  that  anything  can  be 
more  delightful  to  a  simple,  honest,  brave  man, 
than  the  admiration  of  a  simple,  honest,  brave 
boy. 

"  But  the  girl  came  back  and  stood  before 
the  King — she  did  not  kneel  this  time — and  she 
said :  '  We  heard  that  at  your  court,  King 
Arthur,  we  could  find  the  truest  kindness  and 
justice  and  courtesy  in  all  the  world ;  but  it  is 
not  so.  You  insult  women  who  come  to  you 
for  help.  I  asked  you  for  a  knight  to  free  my 
sister,  and  you  give  me  a  kitchen  boy,  one  who 
knows  how  to  turn  a  spit  or  clean  a  pot,  but 
not  how  to  ride  a  horse  or  use  a  spear.'  She 
turned  and  walked  away  again,  down  the  hall, 


The  Kitchen  Boy  95 

and  Arthur  made  DO  answer,  bat  let  her  go 
oat  and  take  her  horse  and  ride  off  along  the 
road  and  out  of  sight. 

"  The  kitchen  bo j  had  left  the  hall  too,  and 
at  the  gate  of  the  castle  he  found  a  big,  strong 
horse,  that  was  led  bj  a  dwarf.  And  on  the 
horse's  back  was  a  beautiful  suit  of  armor,  and 
the  dwarf  carried  a  sword.  The  kitchen  boy 
knew  the  dwarf  and  he  knew  that  the  horse 
and  the  armor  had  been  sent  for  him.  There 
was  no  shield  and  no  spear.  I  can't  think  wh  j 
anybody  should  send  a  present  of  a  horse  and 
armor  without  any  spear  or  shield,  but  I  have 
to  tell  yon  the  story  just  as  it  happened.  The 
dwarf  helped  the  boy  to  put  on  the  armor  and 
then  he  mounted  his  horse  and  rode  away 
after  the  girL 

•*  Now  the  King  thought  that  all  that  he  had 
just  seen  was  so  wonderful  that  he  was  never 
likely  to  have  a  better  right  to  eat  dinner  in  his 
life.  So  he  sat  down  at  the  table  with  the 
Queen  and  all  the  knights,  except  two,  and  the 
dinner  began.  One  of  the  two  who  did  not 
sit  down  was  Lancelot.  He  went  to  put  on 
his  armor,  so  that  he  could  follow  the  kitchen 
boy.  The  other  was  Sir  Kay.  Kay  was  al- 
ways doing  some  silly  thing  or  other.  It  was 
he,  you  know,  who  had  laughed  at  the  boy,  and 
named  him  Fairhands,  and  had  set  him  to  work 
in  the  kitchen.  He  had  always  hated  him,  and 


g6          The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

now  he  too  resolved  to  ride  after  him  and 
punish  him.  He  put  on  his  armor,  found  a 
fast  horse,  and  rode  quickly  along  the  way  that 
the  girl  and  Fairhands  had  taken.  And  just 
as  the  kitchen  boy  came  up  with  the  girl  he 
heard  Kay's  voice  behind  him.  *  Kitchen  boy/ 
he  cried,  '  come  back  !  Do  you  not  know  me  ? 
Why  have  you  run  away  from  me?  Do  you 
not  know  that  I  am  your  master? ' 

" '  I  know  you,'  the  boy  answered  ;  '  you  are 
Sir  Kay,  but  you  are  not  my  master  any  more. 
Will  you  fight  with  me  and  prove  whether  you 
are  or  not  ?  ' 

"  Now  this  would  have  been  a  good  chance 
for  the  girl  to  run  away  from  Fairhands,  if  she 
really  wanted  to,  but  she  thought  that  she  was 
going  to  see  him  nicely  punished  for  the  im- 
pudence of  following  her,  so  she  stayed  to  see 
the  fight.  You  see  what  Kay  was  doing  was 
worse  than  silly.  He  had  his  long  spear  and 
his  shield  and  Fairhands  had  neither.  It  was 
unknightly  to  fight  with  a  man  who  was  so 
much  worse  armed  than  himself,  unless  he  had 
done  some  great  wrong.  Kay  knew  this  just  as 
well  as  anybody,  and  so  I  am  glad  that  the 
fight  came  out  just  as  it  did. 

"  For  when  Kay  spurred  his  horse  and 
charged  against  Fairhands,  the  boy  was  not  a 
bit  afraid,  but  galloped  straight  at  him,  with 
his  sword  drawn  and  no  other  weapon.  With 


The  Kitchen  Boy  97 

this  he  struck  the  point  of  Kay's  spear  away 
from  him  and  then  wounded  him  in  the  side, 
so  that  he  fell  down  off  his  horse  and  lay  on 
his  back  in  the  road.  Now  when  one  knight 
beat  another  in  a  fair  fight  he  had  a  right  to 
take  his  horse  and  all  his  arms,  if  he  wanted 
them.  So  the  kitchen  boy  took  Kay's  shield 
and  spear,  which  he  needed,  and  mounted  his 
horse  again  to  ride  on  with  the  girl.  Kay  got 
up  and  went  back  toward  the  castle,  and  the 
girl,  who  was  a  good  deal  disappointed  not  to 
have  seen  Fairhands  soundly  beaten,  rode  on 
very  sulkily. 

"  But  Lancelot  had  been  riding  after  them, 
and  had  seen  the  whole  of  the  fight  with  Kay, 
and  now  he  came  up  with  them.  '  My  lord,  Sir 
Lancelot,'  cried  the  boy, '  will  you  try  a  joust 
with  me  ?  '  Lancelot  said  nothing,  but  closed 
his  helmet  and  put  his  spear  in  rest,  and  the 
girl  stopped  again  to  look. 

"  But  this  time  the  boy  charged  against  an- 
other sort  of  knight  For  Lancelot's  spear 
struck  the  middle  of  his  shield  and  bore  him 
back  over  the  tail  of  his  horse,  and  he  fell  in 
the  dust  of  the  road.  But  his  own  spear  had 
struck  well  too,  and  even  the  great  Lancelot 
had  almost  fallen  from  his  saddle.  The  boy 
sprang  to  his  feet  and  cried :  '  Will  you  fight 
with  me  now  on  foot  ? ' 

"  In  an  instant  Lancelot  was  off  his  horse  and 


98  The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

had  his  sword  drawn,  and  then  they  fought  for 
a  long  time,  and  each  of  them  fought  his  best. 
And  Lancelot  was  thinking  all  the  while : 
'  Who  can  this  boy  be,  and  where  did  he  learn 
to  fight  so  well?  It  is  all  that  I  can  do  to 
guard  myself  against  him.  I  know  the  ways  of 
all  the  best  knights,  and  Gawain  might  fight 
like  this,  but  who  else?'  And  then  he  said 
aloud  :  '  Is  not  this  enough,  young  man?  We 
have  no  quarrel,  and  you  have  proved  yourself 
a  strong  fighter.' 

" '  Have  1  proved  myself  so  ? '  said  the 
kitchen  boy,  and  his  voice  trembled  with 
happiness  and  pride.  '  It  did  me  good  to  fight 
with  you,  to  feel  how  strong  you  were,  and  to 
feel  that  I  was  strong  too,  to  stand  against 
you.  And  do  you  think  that  I  shall  some  time 
be  a  good  knight  ?  ' 

"  '  I  know  you  will,'  Lancelot  answered,  '  if 
you  live,  and  now  I  am  not  afraid,  as  I  was,  to 
see  you  go  to  fight  this  Red  Knight  of  the  Red 
Plains.' 

" '  Then,  my  lord,  Sir  Lancelot/  said  the 
young  man,  '  will  you  give  me  the  order  of 
knighthood?' 

" '  Gladly,'  said  Lancelot ;  '  but  you  must  tell 
me  your  name  first.  I  will  tell  it  to  no  one 
else  if  you  wish  it  to  be  a  secret.' 

"  '  It  is  not  a  secret  from  you,  Sir  Lancelot,' 
said  the  boy, '  but  do  not  tell  any  others  yet — 


The  Kitchen  Boy  99 

not  till  I  have  done  something  to  make  them 
remember  my  name.  J-am~  Gareth  oLQfkaey. 
King  Lot  is  my  father  and  I  am  Gawain's 
txFofteSrimtnd^  ffiere  at  King  Arthur's  court 
even  he  did  not  know  me,  I  was  so  small  when 
he  left  us.  It  was  my  mother,  Queen  Bellicent, 
who  sent  me  this  horse  and  this  armor.' 

"  Then  Lancelot  looked  in  his  face  again  and 
understood  it  all,  his  strength,  his  courage, 
his  beauty,  his  noble  bearing;  but  he  said: 
*  Why  did  you  let  them  keep  you  in  the  kitchen 
all  that  year,  and  never  tell  the  King  or  Gawain 
or  me  who  you  were?  ' 

" '  I  scarcely  know, '  said  Gareth,  *  why  I 
did  it.  But  when  I  came  I  asked  only  for  food 
and  drink  at  first,  because  I  wanted  to  see  what 
the  court  was  like.  I  wanted  to  see  the  King 
and  you  and  my  brother  Gawain.  I  feared 
that  I  was  not  old  enough  to  be  a  knight,  yet  1 
wanted  to  be  near  the  King  and  near  you,  my 
lord.  And  then,  when  they  put  me  in  the 
kitchen  and  made  me  work  there,  I  would  not  say 
that  I  was  afraid  to  do  it,  so  I  stayed  there  and 
waited  for  my  time.  Was  it  not  right  for  me  to 
do  so,  and  will  you  not  make  me  a  knight  now? ' 

" '  Kneel  down,  then,'  said  Lancelot,  and  he 
touched  Gareth's  shoulder  with  his  sword  and 
said :  '  Rise,  Sir  Gareth,  and  may  God  make 
you  a  good  knight.' 

"  And  Sir  Gareth  rose  and  spoke  not  another 


ioo        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

word,  but  mounted  his  horse  and  was  ready  to 
follow  the  girl.  And  Lancelot  mounted  too 
and  rode  back.  Then  the  girl  said  :  '  Kitchen 
boy,  go  away  from  me,  and  do  not  dare  to  fol- 
low me.  I  cannot  bear  to  have  you  near  me, 
for  your  clothes  are  greasy  and  you  smell  of  the 
kitchen.  And  do  not  think  that  I  will  let  you 
come  with  me  because  you  threw  that  poor 
knight  off  his  horse  and  wounded  him.  That 
was  only  an  unlucky  chance,  and  often  the 
worst  of  men  can  kill  the  best  in  that  way. 
And  as  for  your  seeming  to  fight  so  well  with 
this  Lancelot,  he  let  you  do  it,  I  have  no  doubt, 
just  for  a  spite  to  me.  For  he  is  one  of  those 
lazy  knights  that  sit  about  this  Arthur  and  help 
him  insult  ladies  who  come  to  him  for  aid. 
We  beg  him  to  send  us  knights,  and  he  sends 
us  kitchen  boys,  and  then  these  brave  men  stay 
there  in  their  big  castle  all  together,  and  eat 
and  drink  and  laugh  at  us,  and  tell  one  another 
how  mighty  they  are,  and  then  go  to  sleep. 
Keep  away  from  me.  I  would  not  have  a 
knight  from  that  court  now,  and  surely  not  a 
kitchen  boy.' 

" '  Say  what  you  will  to  me,'  Gareth  an- 
swered ;  '  I  will  try  not  to  come  too  near  to  you, 
but  my  horse  is  as  fast  as  yours,  and  I  shall  fol- 
low you.  My  King  has  sent  me  to  free  your 
sister,  and  I  shall  free  her  or  I  shall  die  in  try- 
ing to  do  it.' 


The  Kitchen  Boy  101 

***  Yon  had  better  go  back  while  you  can,' 
the  girl  said  again.  '  If  you  go  on  with  me  you 
will  meet  two  knights  not  far  from  here  and 
you  will  have  to  fight  with  them.  They  are 
real  knights,  and  they  will  make  yon  wish  that 
yon  were  back  washing  dishes.  Perhaps  you 
know  how  to  kill  pigs  with  that  sharp-pointed 
pole  of  yours,  but  yon  do  not  know  how  to  kill 
knights  or  how  to  keep  them  from  killing  yon 
vrith  that  platter  of  a  shield.*  Then  she  rode 
away  quickly  and  Gareth  rode  after  her  and 
answered  not  a  word. 

"  Soon  the  road  led  through  a  forest,  and  then 
they  came  to  a  river,  with  a  shallow  place 
where  they  must  cross.  And  on  the  other  side 
of  the  river  were  two  knights,  armed  and  on 
horseback,  and  one  of  them  called  out :  *  Knight, 
yon  cannot  cross  here  unless  you  fight  with  us.' 

"  *  Will  you  go  back  now/  said  the  girl,  'or 
will  you  let  them  butcher  you,  like  a  stupid  ox? ' 

M<  I  would  not  turn  back  if  there  were  six  of 
them,'  said  Gareth,  and  he  spurred  his  horse  and 
rode  into  the  river.  And  just  in  the  middle  of 
the  river  one  of  the  knights  met  him.  Each, 
with  his  spear,  struck  the  middle  of  the  other's 
shield,  and  both  the  spears  were  broken.  Then 
they  drew  their  swords  and  struck  at  each 
other,  till  Gareth  gave  the  knight  a  blow  on 
the  helmet  that  stunned  him,  and  he  fell  off  his 
horse  into  the  river,  and  the  swift-flowing  water 


IO2         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

rolled  him  over  and  over,  and  the  weight  of  his 
armor  made  him  sink  into  a  deeper  place,  and 
he  was  drowned. 

"  Then  Gareth  rode  on  through  the  river  and 
met  the  other  knight  on  the  farther  bank.  He 
had  no  spear  now,  but  the  other  knight's  spear 
was  broken  against  his  shield,  and  again  they 
both  drew  their  swords  and  fought,  till  a  stroke 
of  Gareth's  sword  cut  through  the  other 
knight's  helmet  and  he  fell  and  lay  upon  the 
ground.  And  Gareth  took  another  spear,  that 
had  belonged  to  the  knight,  because  he  had 
broken  his  own,  and  rode  on  after  the  girl. 

" '  Keep  away  from  me,'  she  cried  again  ; 
'  you  smell  of  the  kitchen  and  I  cannot  bear  it. 
Coward !  Coward !  One  of  those  two  poor 
knights  was  drowned  because  his  horse  slipped 
in  the  river ;  then  you  came  behind  the  other 
and  struck  him  like  a  traitor.  Do  not  come 
near  me.' 

"  I  hope  you  see,  without  my  telling  you, 
how  foolish  and  false  and  cruel  this  girl  was. 
Some  silly  people  think  that  only  men  need  to 
be  brave,  and  therefore  that  only  men  can  be 
insulted  by  being  called  cowards.  It  is  not 
true.  It  is  a  woman's  duty  to  be  strong  and 
brave,  just  as  much  as  a  man's.  Many  women 
are  brave,  of  course — most  women,  perhaps — 
but  some  are  not,  and  of  all  those  who  are  not, 
those  who  are  like  this  girl  are  among  the  very 


The  Kitchen  Boy  103 

worst.  Do  you  see  why  ?  If  any  man  had  said 
to  this  kitchen  boy  what  she  said,  he  would  have 
had  to  fight  him,  but  she  knew  that  he  was  too 
good  and  brave  a  man  to  harm  a  woman.  So 
she  dared  to  call  him  a  coward  just  because  she 
knew  he  was  not  one.  I  can  scarcely  think  of 
anything  that  is  more  wicked  and  cruel  and 
heartless  for  a  woman  to  do  than  to  wrong  a 
man  because  she  knows  that  he  is  too  brave  to 
take  revenge.  And  if  anyone  ever  tells  you 
that  Gareth  afterward  married  this  girl — but 
I  will  tell  you  about  that  by  and  by.  She  did 
not  deserve  ever  to  see  the  face  of  a  brave,  true 
man,  much  less  be  married  to  one. 

"It  was  getting  a  little  dark  now,  partly  be- 
cause it  was  late  in  the  day  by  this  time  and 
partly  because  they  were  riding  into  a  thicker 
part  of  the  forest.  The  girl  had  to  let  her  horse 
go  more  carefully  and  more  slowly  and  Gareth 
easily  kept  near  her.  '  There  is  time  still  for 
you  to  go  back,'  she  said  ;  '  I  see  that  all  you 
do  is  by  chance  and  not  because  you  know  how 
to  fight.  If  you  keep  on  you  will  be  killed.' 

" '  I  may  be  killed,'  Gareth  answered  again, 
'  but  I  will  go  with  you,  and  if  I  am  not  killed  I 
will  win  your  sister.'  I  think,  after  all,  that  the 
bravest  thing  about  Gareth  was  that  he  was  so 
ready  to  win  a  woman  and  marry  her,  when  all 
he  knew  about  her  was  that  she  was  the  sister 
of  such  a  girl  as  this. 


IO4         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

"  Then,  all  at  once,  they  came  to  an  open 
space  in  the  woods.  There  was  more  light  to 
see  by,  and  yet  what  they  saw  seemed  gloomier 
and  darker  than  all  that  they  had  seen  before. 
For  all  the  ground  was  black,  as  if  a  fire  had 
been  over  it,  and  there  was  a  black  thorn  tree, 
and  on  it  hung  a  black  banner  and  a  black 
shield.  A  black  spear  leaned  against  the  black 
tree,  and  near  by  stood  a  big  black  horse,  all 
covered  with  trappings  of  black  silk.  And  near 
by  too  sat  a  knight,  and  all  his  armor  was  black. 
The  girl  drew  her  rein  and  almost  hissed  at 
Gareth :  '  It  is  the  Black  Knight  of  the  Black 
Plain ;  run,  run !  You  have  time  yet ;  he  is 
not  on  his  horse  ! ' 

"  Then  the  Black  Knight  saw  them  and  said  : 
'  Damsel,  is  this  a  knight  of  Arthur's  court  that 
you  have  brought  to  be  your  champion  ? ' 

" '  No,'  she  answered,  '  it  is  Arthur's  kitchen 
boy.' 

"  '  And  why  does  he  come  on  a  horse  and  in 
armor  ?  You  are  of  high  birth,  and  it  is  a 
shame  to  you  to  ride  with  such  an  one  as  he.' 

" '  He  will  not  leave  me,'  she  answered  again  ; 
'  and  indeed  I  wish  that  you  could  rid  me  of 
him.  Kill  him  or  drive  him  away ;  it  is  noth- 
ing to  me  which  you  do.' 

" '  There  is  no  need  of  killing  him,'  said  the 
Black  Knight.  '  I  will  take  his  horse  and 
armor  and  let  him  go.' 


The  Kitchen  Boy  105 

" '  You  are  too  ready,'  said  Gareth,  '  to  tell 
us  what  you  will  do  with  my  horse  and  my 
armor.  I  mean  to  pass  this  place  in  spite  of 
you,  and  you  will  never  get  my  horse  or  my 
armor  unless  you  win  them  of  me  in  a  fair  fight, 
so  let  us  see  what  you  can  do.' 

"  Then  the  Black  Knight  got  on  his  horse 
and  they  rode  together  with  a  mighty  crash. 
And  the  Black  Knight's  spear  shivered  against 
Gareth's  shield,  and  Gareth's  spear  pierced  the 
Black  Knight  through  the  side  and  then  broke 
off  and  left  a  piece  of  it  sticking  in  the  wound. 
Yet  he  drew  his  sword,  and  so  did  Gareth,  and 
they  fought  with  the  swords  till  the  Black 
Knight  fainted  and  fell  down  off  his  horse. 
Then  Gareth  took  off  the  Black  Knight's 
armor,  because  it  was  better  than  his  own,  and 
dressed  himself  in  it.  He  took  his  shield  too, 
and  he  got  upon  his  horse  again  and  rode  after 
the  girl. 

" '  Keep  farther  from  me,'  she  cried  ;  '  I  can- 
not bear  the  smell  of  your  dirty  kitchen  clothes. 
You  have  killed  another  poor  knight,  by  some 
bad  luck.  But  you  will  meet  one  soon  who 
will  not  let  you  go  so  easily.  You  had  better 
go  back  now,  while  you  can.' 

" '  You  say  that  always,'  Gareth  answered  ; 
'  every  time  that  I  overthrow  a  knight  you  tell 
me  that  the  next  one  will  kill  me.  I  may  be  a 
bad  fighter,  as  you  say,  yet  always  when  you 


io6        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

say  so,  somehow  my  enemy  goes  down  before 
me,  and  I  ride  on  with  you.  And  so  I  will  ride 
on  with  you  till  I  am  killed  or  till  I  free  your 
sister.' 

"  Almost  as  he  said  this  a  knight  came  riding 
toward  them  as  fast  as  his  horse  could  run.  The 
way  through  the  woods  was  growing  darker  yet, 
but  by  the  light  that  was  left  Gareth  saw  that 
the  armor  and  the  shield  of  the  knight  were  all 
green,  and  his  horse  had  green  trappings.  The 
knight  stopped  when  he  saw  them  and  shouted  : 
'  Are  you  my  brother,  the  Black  Knight  of  the 
Black  Plain?  Why  do  you  come  here  with 
this  damsel?' 

" '  This  is  not  your  brother,'  the  girl  an- 
swered ;  '  this  is  a  boy  from  King  Arthur's 
kitchen,  who  has  killed  your  brother  the  Black 
Knight  and  has  taken  his  armor  and  his  shield.' 

"  '  Then  I  will  kill  him  for  killing  my  brother  ! ' 
the  green  knight  cried.  And  without  any  more 
words  they  rushed  together  and  both  their 
spears  were  broken.  Then  they  drew  their 
swords  and  fought  till  the  green  knight's  horse 
slipped  and  fell.  The  knight  was  on  his  feet 
in  a  moment  and  Gareth  sprang  off  his  horse 
to  the  ground  and  they  fought  again.  Then 
the  girl  cried :  '  Green  knight,  why  do  you 
fight  so  long  with  a  coward  of  a  boy  ?  Beat 
him  quickly,  a%  a  knight  like  you  ought  to  beat 
such  a  boy,  and  let  me  go  on  my  way.' 


The  Kitchen  Boy  107 

"  And  it  made  the  knight  ashamed  to  think 
that  it  was  only  a  boy  who  was  fighting  so 
hard  against  him,  and  he  struck  a  great  stroke 
with  his  sword  at  Gareth  and  split  his  shield, 
so  that  it  fell  in  two  pieces  to  the  ground. 
But  Gareth  had  heard  what  the  girl  said,  too, 
and  he  thought :  '  I  would  rather  die  ten  times 
than  let  her  see  me  beaten.'  And  he  struck  a 
great  blow,  too,  and  it  fell  on  the  helmet  of  the 
green  knight  and  brought  him  down  upon  his 
knees.  Then  Gareth  sprang  upon  him  and 
caught  him  by  the  helmet,  and  pulled  him  flat 
upon  the  ground,  and  began  to  cut  the  lacing 
of  his  helmet,  so  that  he  could  cut  off  his  head. 
And  the  green  knight  cried  :  *  You  have  con- 
quered !  The  fight  is  yours !  Do  not  kill  me ! ' 

" '  It  is  not  for  me  to  give  you  your  life,' 
Gareth  answered  ;  *  I  am  riding  with  this  dam- 
sel to  save  her  sister  and  you  stood  in  our 
way ;  she  hates  me,  but  I  am  her  knight  till  I 
come  where  her  sister  is.  If  she  asks  me  to 
spare  you,  I  will  spare  you.' 

" '  I  ask  you  to  spare  him  ? '  she  said  ;  '  never, 
never  !  How  should  I  ask  anything  of  a  poor, 
dirty  kitchen  boy  ? ' 

"  '  You  hear  what  she  says,'  said  Gareth ;  '  1 
must  kill  you.' 

"  But  the  green  knight  cried  again  :  '  Save 
me  and  I  will  give  myself  up  fo  you,  with  all 
the  knights  that  are  under  me.  There  are  thirty 


io8         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

of  them,  and  we  will  always  fight  for  you,  and 
go  where  you  wish,  and  do  what  you  will.' 

" '  I  cannot  give  you  your  life,'  said  Gareth 
again,  '  unless  she  asks  it  of  me,'  and  he  pulled 
off  the  knight's  helmet  and  raised  his  sword,  as 
if  he  would  strike  off  his  head. 

" '  Do  not  dare  to  kill  him  ! '  the  girl  cried  ; 
'how  should  a  wretched  boy  like  you  kill  a 
good  knight  ? ' 

" '  Damsel,'  Gareth  answered,  '  you  have 
asked  his  life  of  me  ;  he  shall  have  it.  Rise,  sir 
knight,  and  thank  the  damsel  for  saving  you.' 

"  But  the  green  knight  only  rose  upon  his 
knee.  '  Sir,'  he  said,  '  I  do  not  know  what  you 
are.  I  do  not  know  why  this  damsel  who  rides 
with  you  calls  you  what  she  does.  But  I  know 
that  you  are  a  better  knight  than  I ;  you  have 
spared  my  life  and  I  am  your  servant.  It  is 
almost  night  and  you  cannot  go  much  farther. 
My  castle  is  near  here.  Come  to  it  with  me 
and  stay  till  morning.' 

"  Now  this  is  one  thing  that  I  like  about 
those  old  fellows.  After  they  were  done  fight- 
ing about  nothing  they  never  had  any  hard 
feelings.  The  one  who  was  beaten  acknowl- 
edged it  and  there  was  nothing  that  he  could 
do  for  the  one  who  had  beaten  him  that  he 
would  not  do.  And  whatever  he  was  told  to 
do,  no  matter  how  unpleasant  it  was,  he  did  it  if 
it  took  him  ten  years,  as  if  it  were  the  only  thing 


Tke  Kitchen  Boy  109 

he  had  to  live  for.  And  there  was  many  a 
knight  of  the  worse  sort  who  would  plunder 
and  rob  and  murder,  but  who  would  never 
break  a  promise  that  he  had  made  to  a  knight 
who  had  beaten  him  in  a  fair  fight. 

"  So  Gareth  and  the  girl  went  to  the  green 
knight's  castle.  But  when  it  was  time  for  sup- 
per and  the  knight  led  them  to  the  table,  the 
girl  said :  'I  cannot  sit  and  eat  with  a  com- 
mon, mean  servant  like  him.  It  is  not  court- 
eous of  you,  sir  knight,  to  put  him  at  the  ta- 
ble with  one  of  high  birth  like  me.* 

"And  the  knight  answered:  'It  is  not 
courteous  of  you,  damsel,  to  speak  so  of  this 
noble  knight.  I  do  not  know  who  he  is,  but 
I  never  fought  with  a  better  knight,  and  I 
dare  say  he  is  as  well  born  as  you  or  L* 
Then  he  led  Gareth  to  a  little  side-table  and 
told  him  to  sit  there.  And  he  came  and  sat 
with  him  himself  and  the  girl  was  left  to  sit 
and  eat  her  supper  alone  at  the  long  table  in 
the  middle  of  the  halL  And  when  it  was  time 
to  go  to  bed  the  green  knight  set  many  good 
knights  to  watch  around  Gareth,  to  see  that  no 
harm  was  done  to  him  while  he  slept. 

44  And  in  the  morning,  when  they  were  ready 
to  leave  the  castle,  the  knight  said  to  Gareth : 
4  My  lord,  I  and  my  thirty  knights  are  all  your 
servants ;  what  shall  we  do? ' 

" '  Go  with  your  thirty  knights,"  said  Gareth, 


I  io        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

'  to  King  Arthur,  and  tell  him  that  his  kitchen 
boy  sent  you.  Then  do  whatever  he  com- 
mands you.' 

" '  I  shall  go,  my  lord,'  the  green  knight  an- 
swered. '  But  now  tell  me,  damsel,'  he  said, 
turning  to  the  girl,  '  where  are  you  leading  this 
young  knight? ' 

" '  He  is  going  with  me,'  she  said,  '  to  the 
siege  of  the  Castle  Perilous,  to  free  my  sister 
from  the  knight  that  keeps  her  shut  up  there.' 

"  '  I  know  him,'  said  the  green  knight.  '  He 
is  the  Red  Knight  of  the  Red  Plains,  is  he  not  ? 
He  is  one  of  the  strongest  knights  of  the 
world,  for  they  say  he  has  the  strength  of  seven 
men.  And  you  are  Lynette,  are  you  not,  and 
your  sister  is  the  Lady  Lyonors  ? ' 

"  '  Yes,'  she  answered, '  I  am  Lynette  and  my 
sister  is  the  Lady  Lyonors.' 

"  And  so  Gareth  and  Lynette  rode  on  their 
way.  But  the  girl  rode  for  a  long  time  with- 
out looking  at  Gareth  or  saying  a  word.  Then 
she  stopped  her  horse  and  waited  for  him  to 
come  up.  But  he  stopped,  too,  because  she  had 
told  him  so  often  not  to  ride  too  near  her,  and 
then  she  turned  and  called  to  him  to  come. 
And  when  he  was  by  her  side  she  did  not  look  at 
him,  but  turned  her  face  away  and  kept  her  eyes 
fixed  upon  the  ground  on  the  other  side  of  her 
horse.  And  she  said  :  '  We  are  not  far  now 
from  my  sister's  castle.  This  Red  Knight  of 


The  Kitchen  Boy  HI 

the  Red  Plains,  whom  yon  must  fight,  is  one 
of  the  greatest  knights  of  all  the  world.  I  do 
not  know  whether  anyone  could  beat  him,  ex- 
cept Sir  Lancelot  or  Sir  Gawain.  But  I  see 
now  that  you  are  a  good  knight.  I  cannot 
guess  who  you  are,  but  1  haTe  seen  that  you 
were  stronger  than  any  of  the  knights  we  haTe 
met.  And  all  the  time  1  hare  said  harsh  and 
cruel  things  to  you  and  you  hare  ncYer  an- 
swered me  with  any  unkind  wonL  And  I 
know  from  that  that  you  are  as  gentle  and  as 
patient  as  you  are  strong.  I  believe  now  that 
you  are  of  some  noble  blood,  and  I  long  to  know 
who  you  are,  but  I  will  not  ask  you,  if  you  do 
not  wish  to  tell  me.  I  only  ask  yon  now  to  for- 
give me,  if  you  can,  and  to  come  and  fight  with 
this  Red  Knight  of  the  Red  Plains.  And 
when  you  meet  him,  be  as  brave  as  I  have  seen 
you  before.  Forget  me  then,  and  forget  how 
wicked  and  cruel  I  was,  and  think  only  that  you 
are  fighting  for  my  sister.  She  is  not  like  me." 
" '  Damsel,'  said  Garetn,  *  I  should  not  be  the 
good  knight  that  you  say  I  am,  if  I  could  not 
bear  all  that  you  have  said  to  me  and  more. 
What  you  said  did  not  make  me  angry  with 
you,  but  it  made  me  angry  with  the  enemy 
who  was  before  me.  For,  after  all  that  you  had 
said,  I  could  bear  anything  rather  than  let  you 
see  me  beaten.  And  now  that  1  have  made 
you  think  me  brave,  it  seems  to  me  that  there 


H2        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

is  no  knight  living  whom  I  could  not  fight. 
And  now  I  will  tell  you  my  name,  too,  since  you 
wish  it.  I  am  Gareth  of  Orkney.  My  father 
is  the  King  of  Orkney,  and  Gawain  is  my 
brother.' 

"  Perhaps,  after  you  have  been  a  girl  for  a 
few  years  longer  than  you  have  already,  you 
may  understand  something  about  girls,  but  I 
never  shall.  I  shall  never  understand  why  this 
Lynette  should  be  purposely  cruel  and  heart- 
less to  this  poor,  brave  Gareth,  and  then  all  at 
once  so  sweet  and  honest.  Was  it  because  the 
green  knight  had  treated  him  so  well,  or  be- 
cause she  was  afraid  he  would  not  fight  for  her 
sister  ?  Or  was  it  for  some  other  reason,  or  no 
reason  ?  What  do  you  think  ?  For  myself,  1 
believe  that  if  there  ever  lived  an  arrant  cow- 
ard of  a  girl  it  was  this  Lynette  on  the  first  day 
that  she  rode  with  Gareth.  Yet  on  this  second 
day,  if  another  knight  had  knocked  him  off  his 
horse  and  left  him  wounded,  she  would  not 
have  screamed  and  fainted,  as  many  better 
girls  than  she  would  do.  She  would  have  gone 
to  him  and  taken  off  his  armor  and  dressed  his 
wounds  and  taken  care  of  him  as  well  as  a  sur- 
geon and  a  nurse  together  could  have  done.  I 
know  she  would  have  done  it,  because  she  did 
do  just  such  things  afterward.  I  don't  like 
her,  but  there  was  some  good  in  her,  and,  once 
more,  I  don't  understand  her. 


The  Kitchen  Boy  113 

"They  rode  side  by  side  now,  and  in  the 
afternoon  they  came  to  a  hermit's  celL  •  We 
are  near  the  castle/  said  Lynette,  and  she  spoke 
low,  as  if  she  were  afraid  the  Red  Knight  of 
the  Red  Plains  would  hear  her,  but  they  were 
not  near  enough  for  that.  •  A  holy  man  lives 
here,  and  here  my  sister  sends  bread  and  meat 
and  wine  for  any  knight  who  may  come  to  fight 
for  her/ 

"They  left  their  horses  and  went  into  the 
celL  The  hermit  brought  them  food  and  drink, 
and  said:  'Sir  knight,  do  not  go  farther  to- 
day. You  hare  ridden  long  and  your  horse  is 
weary.  Perhaps  you  are  so,  too.  Rest  here 
to-night,  and  to-morrow  you  can  fight  the 
better/ 

"  So  they  stayed  all  night  with  the  hermit, 
and  the  next  day  they  rode  on  again.  It  was  not 
far  now  that  they  rode  through  the  woods,  and 
then,  with  a  turn  of  the  road,  they  saw  all  at 
once  an  open  space,  with  many  tents,  and 
across  it  the  walls  and  towers  of  the  castle. 
And  Lynette  whispered :  f  The  Red  Knight  of 
the  Red  Plains  and  his  men  live  in  those  tents. 
Do  you  see  that  horn,  made  of  an  elephant's 
tusk,  hanging  on  the  tree?  Yon  must  blow 
that  to  tell  him  that  you  have  come  to  fight  with 
him.  But  do  not  blow  it  yet.  Every  morning 
he  grows  stronger  and  stronger  till  noon,  and 
then  he  has  the  strength  of  seven  men.  And 


1 14        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

after  noon  he  grows  weaker  again,  so  wait  till 
noon  is  past  before  you  blow  the  horn.  He 
will  be  strong  enough  then.' 

"  '  No,'  said  Gareth, '  I  do  not  care  how  strong 
he  is  ;  I  will  fight  with  him  now,'  and  he  rode 
up  to  where  the  horn  was  and  blew  a  great 
blast  on  it,  so  that  the  walls  of  the  castle  sent 
back  the  sound,  and  all  the  woods  rang  with  it. 
And  in  an  instant  the  place  was  alive  with  men. 
The  Red  Knight  of  the  Red  Plains  came  from  his 
tent  and  some  of  the  men  put  on  his  armor,  while 
others  brought  his  shield  and  his  spear  and  his 
horse,  and  saddled  the  horse  and  held  him 
ready.  But  Gareth  scarcely  saw  him,  for  Ly- 
nette  touched  his  arm  and  pointed  to  the  castle, 
and  there,  at  a  window,  stood  the  Lady  Lyo- 
nors.  She  saw  him  and  waved  her  hand  to 
him,  and  he  saw  the  paleness  of  her  face,  and 
yet  a  little  flush  of  hope  in  it,  he  thought,  as  she 
looked  at  him,  and  it  made  him  feel  stronger 
for  the  fight. 

"  But  he  could  not  look  at  her  long,  for  the 
Red  Knight  was  on  his  horse,  and  his  spear  was 
down.  And  Gareth  closed  his  helmet  and  put 
his  spear  in  the  rest  and  was  ready  too.  And 
when  they  ran  together  there  was  such  a  crash 
of  the  spears  upon  the  shields,  and  of  the  shields 
against  the  armor,  that  it  seemed  to  those  who 
heard  it  that  they  themselves  could  feel  the 
shock,  and  the  Lady  Lyonors  turned  away  her 


T/u  Kitchen  Boy  115 

head  and  did  not  dare  to  look.  But  Lynette 
looked,  and  she  saw  both  the  knights  and  both 
the  horses  fall  and  roll  upon  the  ground.  In  a 
moment  both  the  men  were  up  and  had  drawn 
their  swords,  and  then  Lynette  and  the  Lady 
Lyonors  and  all  the  rest  looked  and  held  their 
breath  while  the  sword  strokes  showered  upon 
the  shields  and  the  helmets. 

"  Gareth  had  had  no  such  fight  as  this  be- 
fore. There  was  something  to  fight  for  now — 
fame  and  honor  and  life — and  the  Lady  Lyo- 
nors. Yet  he  remembered  what  he  had  heard 
of  this  knight's  strange  strength.  Hard  as  he 
fought,  he  fought  carefully  too,  for  it  was  not 
noon  yet.  If  he  could  only  bear  up  and  defend 
himself  for  a  little  while,  he  thought,  he  should 
afterwards  have  the  better  of  the  fight.  So  he 
used  his  shield  and  his  sword  to  keep  off  the 
blows  that  the  Red  Knight  rained  upon  him,  and 
he  struck  few  himself.  He  tried  to  save  all  his 
strength  till  his  own  time  should  come,  and  all 
the  while  he  felt  the  strokes  of  the  Red  Knight's 
sword  fall  heavier  and  faster  and  sharper, 
and  pieces  of  his  shield  were  hewn  off,  and  the 
rivets  of  his  armor  were  loosened,  and  links  of 
his  mail  were  cut  and  hung  useless.  And  when 
it  seemed  to  him  that  he  could  stand  no  more 
and  that  he  must  sink  down  under  the  very 
weight  and  fury  of  that  terrible,  fierce  sword, 
suddenly  he  felt  the  force  of  it  grow  less.  It 


n6        The  Court  of  King  Artlmr 

fell  no  longer  so  quick  or  so  hard  on  his  shield 
and  his  helmet  as  before.  It  was  noon,  and  the 
Red  Knight  was  losing  that  magic  strength 
that  had  been  growing  all  this  time.  Soon  it 
would  all  leave  him  and  the  fight  would  be  a 
fair  one.  The  new  hope  made  Gareth  stronger 
and  he  rushed  upon  his  enemy  and  drove  him 
backward  across  the  field,  till  the  Red  Knight 
cried  out :  '  Sir  knight,  we  have  fought  too 
long !  Let  us  both  rest  a  little  and  then  we 
can  fight  better.' 

"  So  they  both  sat  down  and  took  off  their 
helmets  and  breathed  the  fresh  air.  And  as  he 
rested  Gareth  looked  up  at  the  castle  window 
and  saw  again  the  Lady  Lyonors  looking  down 
at  him.  And  it  seemed  to  him  that  the  look 
in  her  face  was  not  as  it  had  been  at  first.  It 
was  almost  hopeless  before,  and  yet  there  was 
no  fear  in  it.  But  now  he  thought  that  there 
were  hope  and  fear  both.  'What  has  she  to 
fear  ? *  he  thought ;  'if  I  am  killed  nothing 
worse  will  come  to  her  than  has  come  already ; 
can  it  be  that  the  fear  is  for  me  ?  ' 

"  And  with  that  thought  he  cried  out : 
'  Come,  Red  Knight  of  the  Red  Plains,  let  us 
go  on  with  our  fight  and  have  it  done  !  I  am 
ready  for  you  ! ' 

"  And  they  rushed  together  and  fought 
again  till  the  woods  and  the  castle  echoed  with 
the  blows  of  their  swords  and  the  clatter  of 


The  Kitchen  Boy  117 

their  armor.  And  the  Red  Knight  was  still 
strong  and  Gareth  was  weary  with  guarding 
himself  as  he  had  done  against  that  mighty 
power  that  he  had  before  noon,  so  that  his  head 
began  to  swim  and  his  eyes  grew  dim  and  the 
Red  Knight  seemed  to  rise  taller  and  bigger 
and  to  tower  over  him  like  a  giant.  And  not 
the  knight  alone,  but  everything  around  him 
seemed  red  like  blood,  and  it  all  floated  and 
twisted  and  curled  before  his  eyes,  and  Gareth 
reeled  and  almost  fell,  and  then  he  heard  the 
voice  of  Lynette,  as  if  it  came  out  of  that 
strange,  whirling,  bloody  mist,  and  it  cried  : 
*Oh,  Sir  Gareth,  where  are  the  courage  and 
the  strength  that  I  have  seen  you  show  ?  My 
sister  stands  there  at  the  window  and  weeps  to 
see  you  beaten  by  this  cruel  knight.' 

"And  when  he  heard  those  words  the  red 
mist  was  gone  from  before  Gareth's  eyes,  and 
he  made  a  last  rush  upon  his  foe.  He  struck 
one  fierce  blow  upon  the  Red  Knight's  sword 
and  drove  it  out  of  his  hand,  and  then  another 
upon  his  helmet  and  felled  him  to  the  ground. 
Then  he  sprang  upon  him  and  cut  the  lacings  of 
his  helmet  and  tore  it  off  and  stood  ready  to 
strike  off  his  head.  And  the  Red  Knight 
cried :  '  You  have  won ;  you  are  a  better 
knight  than  I ;  give  me  my  life !  * 

"'Why  should  I  let  you  live?'  Gareth  an- 
swered. '  You  have  killed  many  knights,  they 


ii8        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

say,  who  came  here  to  help  this  lady;  it  is 
your  turn  now.  Yet,  before  I  kill  you,  tell  me 
why  you  came  here  and  shut  her  up  so  in  her 
own  castle.' 

" '  I  will  tell  you,'  said  the  Red  Knight ; 
'  once  I  loved  a  lady  ;  she  had  a  brother,  and  a 
knight  of  Arthur's  court  killed  him.  It  was 
Lancelot  or  Gawain,  we  did  not  know  which. 
Then  the  lady  whom  I  loved  told  me  to  kill 
Lancelot  or  Gawain  or  both  of  them  to  avenge 
her  brother.  And  I  came  here  and  besieged 
this  castle,  because  I  thought  that  the  lady  of 
the  castle  would  send  to  King  Arthur  for  help, 
and  that  Lancelot  or  Gawain  would  come  and 
fight  with  me.  But  now  I  am  punished  enough, 
because  I  am  beaten  in  a  fight,  yet  not  by 
Lancelot  or  Gawain.' 

0 '  It  was  all  wrong  that  you  did,'  said 
Gareth, '  for  if  Lancelot  or  Gawain  killed  your 
lady's  brother  I  know  that  he  did  it  in  a  fair 
fight,  and  any  knight  may  chance  to  be  killed 
so.  Yet  1  will  spare  you  now,  if  the  lady  of 
this  castle  forgives  you.'  And  he  looked  up 
at  the  window  of  the  castle  again,  and  the 
Lady  Lyonors  made  a  sign  to  him  to  give  the 
Red  Knight  his  life.  '  Live,  then,'  Gareth 
said,  'and  go  to  the  court  of  King  Arthur, 
with  all  your  men.  Find  Lancelot  and  Ga- 
wain both,  and  beg  them  to  forgive  you  for 
all  the  ill-will  you  have  had  toward  them. 


The  Kitchen  Boy  119 

Then  do  whatever  they  and  the  King  com- 
mand you." 

"  So  the  Red  Knight  of  the  Red  Plains  rose 
from  the  ground  where  he  lay  and  stood  before 
Gareth  with  bowed  head,  and  he  said:  "  You 
have  made  me  ashamed  of  all  that  I  hare  done. 
For  if  I  had  beaten  you  in  this  fight  I  should 
not  have  spared  you  as  yon  have  spared  me.  I 
should  have  killed  you.  If  Lancelot  and  Ga- 
wain  and  the  rest  at  King  Arthur's  court  are 
like  you  it  was  wrong  for  me  ever  to  be  against 
them.' 

M  And  the  story  says  that  the  Red  Knight  of 
the  Red  Plains  went  to  the  court,  as  Gareth 
told  him  to  do.  And  there  he  stayed  for  a 
long  time  and  lived  and  fought  well,  and  after 
a  time  he  came  to  be  a  knight  of  the  Round 
Table. 

"And  now  there  is  only  a  word  more. 
Some  time,  I  hope,  you  will  learn  to  love  the 
greatest  poet  of  our  time  as  much  as  I  love 
him.  He  has  told  this  story  better  than  it  ever 
was  told  before  or  will  be  told  again.  Yet, 
when  you  read  the  story  as  he  tells  it,  and  he 
says  at  the  end  of  it  that  Gareth  married 
Lynette,  remember  what  I  tell  you  now,  he 
did  not  marry  her.  I  learned  the  story  from 
the  same  book  where  he  learned  it,  and  I  tell 
you  that  Gareth  married  the  Lady  Lyonors." 


CHAPTER    VI 

THE   SPARROW-HAWK 

"  WHAT  are  we  going  to  Cardiff  for?"  Hel- 
en's mother  asked.  We  were  in  a  train  on  our 
way  there,  and  it  puzzled  her  greatly.  She 
had  known  many  people  who  had  travelled 
much,  but  she  had  never  heard  of  anybody  go- 
ing to  Cardiff  before. 

"  We  are  going  to  Cardiff,"  I  said,  "  just  be- 
cause Geraint  went  there." 

"  Who  was  Geraint  ?  "  said  Helen  ;  "  and 
how  do  you  know  he  went  to  Cardiff?"  said 
her  mother;  "and  what  did  he  go  there  for?" 
said  Helen;  "and  what  if  he  did?"  said  her 
mother. 

You  know  how  hopeless  it  is  to  answer  peo- 
ple who  ask  questions  like  this,  so  I  only  said, 
with  all  the  dignity  that  I  thought  I  could 
make  them  believe  in,  "  Ladies,  with  the  per- 
fect understanding  that  you  have  no  right  at 
all  to  question  where  we  go,  since  you  have 


The  Sparrow-Hawk  121 

left  this  journey  all  to  me,  I  will  tell  you  some- 
thing about  Geraint  and  why  he  went  to  Car- 
diff. As  for  ourselves,  I  can  only  say  again 
that  we  are  going  there  because  Geraint  did." 

They  did  not  seem  a  bit  frightened  at  seeing 
how  firm  I  was,  but  Helen  could  not  help  show- 
ing that  she  saw  a  story  coming.  "  Still,"  her 
mother  said,  "  you  had  better  keep  right  on 
looking  out  of  the  window,  because  you  might 
miss  seeing  something,  and  you  can  hear  just 
as  well." 

"  I  have  told  you  before,"  I  began,  "  that 
King  Arthur  usually  kept  the  feast  of  Pente- 
cost at  Caerleon.  This  that  I  am  going  to  tell 
you  about  happened  on  the  Tuesday  after 
Pentecost,  just  to  be  exact.  The  King  and  the 
Queen  and  the  knights  were  dining  in  the  great 
hall  of  the  castle,  when  there  came  in  a  tall, 
fair-haired  young  man.  He  came  and  stood 
before  the  King  and  said :  '  My  lord,  I  am  one 
of  your  foresters,  in  the  Forest  of  Dean.  To- 
day I  saw  a  great  stag  in  the  forest.  It  was 
pure  white,  and  it  was  so  beautiful  and  proud 
that  it  would  not  go  with  any  of  the  other  ani- 
mals, but  kept  by  itself.  And  I  came  to  ask 
you  if  anything  should  be  done.1 

'"  You  have  done  well,'  said  the  King;  'to- 
morrow  we  will  all  hunt  this  stag.  Let  the 
word  be  given  to  all  in  the  castle,  and  we  will 
start  at  daybreak.' 


122        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

"  And  the  Queen  said :  '  Will  you  let  me  go, 
my  lord,  to  see  the  hunting  of  this  wonderful 
stag  ? ' 

"  '  Gladly,'  the  King  answered,  '  if  you  will 
be  ready  with  the  rest  at  daybreak.' 

"  And  Gawain  said  :  '  My  lord,  will  it  not  be 
well  if  you  command  that  whoever  may  kill 
the  stag  shall  have  its  head  to  keep  or  to  give 
to  whom  he  pleases  ?  ' 

"  '  It  shall  be  so,'  the  King  answered. 

"And  so  at  daybreak  the  King  and  his 
knights  and  attendants  and  squires  and  pages 
were  up  and  ready  for  the  hunt.  But  the 
Queen  was  still  asleep.  Some  of  them  wanted 
to  wake  her,  but  Arthur  said :  '  No ;  if  she 
would  rather  sleep  than  see  the  hunt,  let  her 
sleep.' 

"  But  when  they  were  all  gone  the  Queen 
awoke.  Then  she  called  some  of  her  maidens 
and  told  them  to  go  to  the  stable  and  bring 
horses,  so  that  they  could  follow  the  hunters. 
But  they  could  find  only  two  horses,  so  the 
Queen  and  one  of  her  maidens  took  these  and 
rode  away  toward  the  Usk.  They  came  to  the 
river,  I  suppose,  not  far  from  where  the  bridge 
is,  where  we  stood  this  morning.  But  there 
was  no  bridge  then,  and  their  horses  had  to 
wade  through  the  river.  Then  they  followed 
the  track  of  the  hunters  through  the  woods  on 
the  other  side. 


The  Sparrow-Hawk  123 

"  In  a  few  moments  they  heard  the  galloping 
of  a  horse,  and  a  young  knight  rode  up  to  them. 
He  was  a  tall,  handsome  fellow.  He  wore  a 
robe  of  silk,  and  around  his  body  was  a  purple 
scarf,  with  a  gold  apple  at  each  corner,  and  by 
his  side  was  a  sword  with  a  gold  hilt  This 
was  Geraint.  His  father  was  Erbin,  the  King 
of  Devon. 

" '  Why  did  you  not  go  with  the  others  to 
the  hunt,  Geraint  ?  *  the  Queen  asked. 

"  '  Because  I  did  not  know  when  they  went,' 
he  answered. 

" '  It  was  so  with  me,'  said  the  Queen, '  for  I 
was  asleep,  but  perhaps  we  can  hear  something 
of  the  hunt  from  where  we  are  now ;  we  can 
at  least  hear  the  horns  and  the  dogs.' 

"  And,  as  they  stood  waiting,  there  came  past 
them  a  knight,  all  in  armor,  on  a  big  horse,  and 
a  lady  on  another  horse,  and  a  dwarf  on  a  third 
horse.  '  Geraint,'  said  the  Queen,  •  do  you 
know  who  that  knight  is  ? ' 

"  Geraint  did  not  know  and  the  Queen  sent 
her  maiden  to  ask  the  dwarf  what  was  his  mas- 
ter's name.  '  I  will  not  tell  you  his  name,'  the 
dwarf  answered. 

"  •  Then  I  will  go  and  ask  the  knight  himself,' 
said  the  maiden. 

"  '  You  shall  not  ask  him,'  said  the  dwarf ; 
'you  are  not  of  high  enough  rank  to  speak  to 
mv  lord.' 


124        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

"  Then,  as  the  maiden  turned  her  horse  to 
go  toward  the  knight,  the  dwarf  struck  her 
with  his  whip  across  the  face,  and  she  rode 
away  from  him  and  came  back  to  the  Queen. 

"  '  I  will  go  now  and  ask  him  myself  who  his 
master  is,'  said  Geraint.  But  the  dwarf  gave 
him  the  same  answer  that  he  had  given  to  the 
maiden. 

" '  Then,'  said  Geraint, '  I  will  go  and  ask  the 
knight  himself.' 

"  '  You  shall  not  ask  him,'  said  the  dwarf  ; 
'  you  are  not  of  high  enough  rank  to  speak  to 
my  lord.' 

"  And  as  Geraint  turned  away  from  the 
dwarf  and  toward  the  knight,  the  dwarf  struck 
him  across  the  face,  just  as  he  had  struck  the 
maiden.  For  an  instant  Geraint  had  his  hand 
on  the  hilt  of  his  sword,  and  he  could  have 
killed  the  dwarf  with  one  stroke  of  it.  Then 
he  thought  that  it  would  be  unworthy  of  a  man 
like  him  to  kill  such  a  weak,  wretched  creature 
as  the  dwarf,  and  he  thought,  too,  that  it  would 
be  of  no  use  for  him  to  fight  with  the  knight, 
because  the  knight  was  fully  armed  and  he 
had  only  his  sword.  So  he  rode  back  to  the 
Queen  and  said  :  '  With  your  leave,  I  will  fol- 
low this  knight,  and  when  he  comes  to  any 
place  where  I  can  get  arms  I  will  try  to  avenge 
the  insult  to  you  which  his  dwarf  did  in  strik- 
ing your  maiden.' 


The  Sparrow-Hawk  125 

" '  Go,  then,  Geraint,'  the  Queen  answered, 
'  and  I  shall  be  grateful  for  your  service  to  me. 
Do  not  try  to  fight  with  him  till  you  have  good 
arms.  I  shall  be  anxious  till  I  hear  from  you.' 

"•  If  I  can,'  said  Geraint, ' 1  will  let  you  hear 
from  me  by  to-morrow  afternoon.' 

"'And  one  thing  more,  Geraint,'  said  the 
Queen,  *  if  you  avenge  this  insult  to  me  I  shall 
never  forget  it,  and  when  you  bring  a  bride  to 
our  court,  as  such  a  noble  young  knight  as  you 
must  do  some  time,  I  will  dress  her  for  her 
marriage  as  no  bride  in  England  was  ever 
dressed  before.' 

"  Then  Geraint  left  the  Queen  and  followed 
the  knight  and  the  woman  and  the  dwarf. 
They  crossed  the  Usk  and  passed  King 
Arthur's  castle,  and  then  rode  along  at  an  easy 
pace  for  many  miles.  And  at  last  they  came  to 
a  town  and  they  rode  through  the  street. 
And  as  the  knight  and  the  woman  and  the 
dwarf  passed  along  all  the  people  ran  out  of 
their  shops  and  houses  to  look  at  them.  They 
waved  their  hats,  those  of  them  who  had  hats, 
and  cheered  till  the  knight  had  gone  by,  and 
then  they  all  went  back  to  their  work,  for 
they  were  all  busy.  Geraint  saw  that  they 
were  polishing  swords  and  cleaning  armor 
and  shoeing  horses,  and  acting  quite  as  if  they 
were  getting  ready  for  a  war  and  were  afraid 
of  being  too  late.  Geraint  followed  the  knight 


126        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

up  the  street  till  he  came — now  what  is  all  this 
trouble  about  ?" 

The  train  had  stopped  and  a  guard  came  up 
to  our  window.  "  This  is  Cardiff,  sir,"  he 
said. 

Now  when  you  are  getting  out  of  a  train 
and  are  telling  a  porter  where  he  is  to  take 
your  luggage  and  whether  this  is  all  of  your 
luggage  or  whether  there  is  some  in  the  van, 
and  if  so,  how  much,  you  don't  have  a  great 
deal  of  time  left  to  tell  stories  to  little  girls.  So 
the  story  was  interrupted,  and  it  stayed  inter- 
rupted till  we  had  gone  to  an  hotel  and  given 
warning  that  we  should  want  some  dinner  after 
awhile,  and  then  had  started  out  to  take  a  little 
walk  and  to  see  the  town. 

After  all  there  did  seem  to  be  some  sense  in 
Helen's  mother's  question  about  why  we  came 
to  Cardiff.  I  don't  mean  any  disrespect  to  the 
good  town  of  Cardiff,  only  if  we  had  been  set 
down  in  St.  Mary's  Street  without  knowing 
how  we  came  there,  we  should  scarcely  have 
known  that  we  were  not  in  New  York.  Car- 
diff is  a  fine  city,  a  rich  and  a  prosperous  city  ; 
it  is  growing  fast ;  there  are  good  shops  and 
houses,  and  the  people  look  contented  ;  but  we 
did  not  need  to  come  three  thousand  miles  to 
see  a  street  that  looked  like  New  York. 

"And  wasn't  it  most  remarkable,"  I  said, 
"that  we  should  get  to  Cardiff  just  as  I  was 


The  Sparrow-Hawk  127 

telling  you  that  Geraint  got  to  Cardiff  ?  And 
he  had  come  all  the  way  from  Caerleon  on 
horseback,  too,  and  we  came  by  train.  But 
what  a  difference  between  the  two  towns! 
Then  Caerleon  was  a  great  city,  with  castles 
and  churches  and  strong  walls  and  towers,  and 
now  it  is  a  poor  little  country  village,  almost 
hidden  and  hardly  known.  Then  Cardiff  was 
a  poor  little  town,  perhaps  not  very  much 
larger  than  Caerleon  is  now,  and  it  has  grown 
up  while  Caerleon  has  grown  down,  till  it  is 
this  big  handsome  city,  with  shops  and  hotels 
and  banks  and  railways  and  a  harbor  full  of 
ships.  I  don't  know  whether  Geraint  rode  up 
this  same  street  where  we  are  or  not,  but  at 
any  rate,  as  he  followed  the  knight  and  the 
woman  and  the  d warf,  he  saw  them  ride  into  a 
castle.  Now  did  you  ever  see  anything  so  re- 
markable in  your  life  ?  " 

" '  So  remarkable  as  what  ? '  said  Helen. 

"  Why,  don't  you  see  this  beautiful  place  in 
front  of  us  ?  Isn't  it  remarkable  that  we  should 
come  to  Cardiff  Castle  just  at  the  very  minute 
that  1  was  telling  you  that  Geraint  came  to  it? 
I  suppose  the  castle  that  Geraint  saw  and  the 
one  that  we  see  would  look  about  as  different 
as  any  two  buildings  could  and  both  be  Car- 
diff Castle.  Geraint  did  not  go  into  the  castle, 
but  took  the  road  toward  the  river,  as  we  will 
do  now,  for  the  story  has  nothing  to  do  with 


128        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

the  inside  of  the  castle.  Yet  there  is  another 
story  that  has  something  to  do  with  it,  and 
Geraint  might  have  thought  of  it  as  he  passed 
the  gate  and"  went  on  his  way  to  find  a  place  to 
stay  for  the  night.  But  I  don't  suppose  he 
did,  because  he  does  not  seem  to  have  known 
much  about  Cardiff.  He  probably  did  not 
know  that  this  castle  once  belonged  to  Uther 
Pendragon,  before  King  Arthur's  time.  I  have 
read  somewhere  that  it  belonged  to  Arthur 
himself  afterward  and  that  Caerleon-upon-Usk 
was  really  Cardiff.  But  that  is  nonsense,  be- 
cause Caerleon  was  and  is  Caerleon. 

"But  Cardiff  Castle  did  belong  to  Uther 
Pendragon,  without  any  doubt.  And  in  those 
same  days  there  was  a  good  old  knight  named 
Sir  Clegea.  He  was  rich  once,  but  he  enter- 
tained his  friends  so  handsomely  and  gave  so 
much  to  the  poor  that  he  found  at  last  that  he 
had  scarcely  anything  left.  He  did  not  care 
for  this  so  much  for  himself,  but  it  made  him 
sorrowful  that  he  could  not  give  any  more  to 
the  poor. 

"One  Christmas  Eve  he  was  feeling  more 
sad  than  usual,  because  that  was  the  time  in 
the  year  when  he  used  to  give  the  most  and 
when  he  used  to  have  the  most  of  his  friends 
about  him.  But  his  wife  tried  to  cheer  him 
and  told  him  that  he  ought  to  be  grateful  that 
they  still  had  enough  for  themselves  to  eat, 


The  Sfarrom-ffawt  129 

though  they  had  not  modi  more.  So  Sir 
Oeges  and  his  wife  and  their  children  sat 
down  and  ate  what  they  had,  and  tried  to  be 
as  merry  as  they  could,  and  then  they  all  went 
to  bed. 

"  The  next  day  they  went  to  church.  When 
they  came  home  Sir  Oeges  went  into  his  gar- 
den  and  knelt  down  under  a  cherry-tree  and 
prayed  and  thanked  God  for  all  He  had  given 
him,  whether  it  was  much  or  little.  Then,  as 
he  was  an  old  man,  he  took  hold  of  a  low  branch 
of  the  tree  to  help  him  in  rising,  and  as  soon  as 
he  took  hold  of  it  he  saw  that  the  branch  was 
covered  with  leaves  and  cherries. 

"He  called  his  wife  and  showed  her  the 
wonder,  and  she  told  him  that  he  ought  to  take 
the  cherries  to  Cardiff  Castle  and  give  them  to 
the  King.  Ton  know  there  were  no  hothouses 
in  those  days,  to  raise  fruits  out  of  season,  and 
there  were  no  fast  ships  to  bring  tropical  fruits 
to  England.  So  at  Christmas  even  a  king 
might  look  at  cherries  as  a  good  deal  of  a  lux- 
ury. 

"  Sir  Oeges  took  his  wife's  advice,  picked 
the  cherries,  and  carried  them  it  a  basket  to 
the.  castle.  He  dressed  himself  like  a  poor 
man,  as  indeed  he  was.  At  the  door  of  the 
castle  stood  a  porter,  who  would  not  let  him 
in  at  first.  You  would  know  just  by  that  that 
it  was  not  in  King  Arthur's  time.  Mo  porter 


130        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

would  ever  turn  any  poor  man  away  from  King 
Arthur's  castle.  But  when  the  porter  saw  the 
cherries  in  the  basket  he  knew  that  the  King 
would  be  likely  to  give  something  handsome 
for  them.  So  he  told  Sir  Cleges  that  he  would 
let  him  in  if  he  would  promise  to  pay  him  a 
third  of  what  the  King  gave  him  for  the  cher- 
ries. 

"  There  was  nothing  for  Sir  Cleges  to  do  but 
promise,  so  he  promised.  When  he  got  to  the 
door  of  the  great  hall  he  found  an  usher,  and 
the  usher  told  him  he  could  not  come  in.  Then 
the  usher  saw  the  cherries  too,  and,  being  just 
as  good  and  faithful  a  servant  as  the  porter,  he 
also  told  Sir  Cleges  that  he  would  let  him  in 
if  he  would  promise  him  a  third  of  what  he  got 
from  the  King  for  the  cherries.  And  again  Sir 
Cleges  had  to  promise.  Then  he  went  into  the 
hall,  and  the  King's  steward  stopped  him  and 
would  not  let  him  go  near  the  King,  till  he  too 
saw  the  cherries  and  made  Sir  Cleges  promise 
him  a  third  of  the  pay  for  them.  That  made 
three  thirds,  so  you  see  the  prospect  was  that 
whatever  the  pay  turned  out  to  be,  he  was  not 
going  to  have  much  of  it  left  for  himself. 

"  But  now,  at  last,  he  came  before  the  King 
and  offered  him  the  cherries.  And  the  King 
was  so  much  pleased  that  he  promised  to  give 
him  just  whatever  he  should  ask  in  payment. 
You  see  Uther  Pendragon  was  not  so  careful 


The  Sparrow-Hawk  131 

about  making  that  kind  of  promise  as  Arthur 
was.  '  My  lord,'  said  Sir  Cleges,  '  what  I  ask 
is  that  you  will  let  me  strike  twelve  blows 
wherever  I  like.' 

"  That  is  a  very  foolish  thing  to  ask,'  said 
the  King  ;  '  I  am  sorry  I  let  you  choose  ;  think 
again;  let  me  give  you  money  or  land,  or  a 
horse  or  something  that  will  do  you  some 
good.' 

"  '  You  have  promised,  my  lord,'  Sir  Cleges 
answered,  '  to  give  me  whatever  I  ask.  These 
twelve  blows  are  what  I  ask  and  you  must 
give  them  to  me.' 

"  '  If  you  will  be  a  fool,  then,'  said  the  King, 
'  have  your  own  way  and  go.' 

"  Now  while  this  little  talk  had  been  going 
on  the  steward  had  been  turning  all  sorts  of 
colors  and  wishing  he  was  out  of  his  bargain. 
And  as  soon  as  the  King  had  told  Sir  Cleges 
that  he  might  have  what  he  had  asked,  he 
turned  and  struck  the  steward  four  good 
blows  with  his  staff.  Then  he  went  to  the 
door  of  the  hall  and  treated  the  usher  to  his 
four  blows,  and  then  to  the  door  of  the  cas- 
tle, where  he  gave  the  porter  his  third  of  the 
pay. 

"  Then  he  started  away  from  the  castle,  but 
he  had  not  gone  far  when  a  page  came  running 
after  him,  to  tell  him  that  the  King  commanded 
him  to  come  back.  Sir  Cleges  went  back  to 


132        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

the  hall  and  there  he  found  an  old  minstrel 
playing  on  a  harp  and  singing  about  him  to 
the  King.  The  minstrel  had  recognized  Sir 
Cleges  at  the  very  first,  because  he  was  one 
of  the  many  to  whom  he  had  been  kind  when 
he  was  rich.  So  as  soon  as  he  had  gone  the 
minstrel  began  to  sing  this  song,  which  he  was 
clever  enough  to  make  up  on  the  spot,  to  tell 
the  King  who  he  was  and  what  good  things  he 
had  done. 

"So  the  King  had  sent  for  Sir  Cleges  to 
come  back,  and  when  he  saw  him  again  he 
too  remembered  his  old  knight.  He  made  him 
tell  the  whole  story  about  the  porter  and  the 
usher  and  the  steward,  and  he  enjoyed  the 
story  so  much  that  he  gave  him  Cardiff  Castle 
and  a  good  deal  more  besides.  Kings  do 
often  enjoy  jokes  on  other  people.  So  Sir 
Cleges  was  rich  again,  and  I  hope  that  this 
time  he  did  not  give  away  everything  that  he 
had,  but  I  am  afraid  he  did,  for  when  Geraint 
came  here  Cardiff  Castle  did  not  belong  to  Sir 
Cleges  or  to  anybody  of  his  family,  and  it  had 
not  in  a  long  time. 

"  Speaking  about  Geraint  brings  me  back  to 
the  story.  He  rode  along,  as  I  said,  toward 
the  river — this  very  road,  I  suppose,  and  cer- 
tainly this  very  river — and  he  crossed  a  bridge, 
just  where  this  bridge  is  that  we  are  crossing, 
no  doubt.  And  on  the  other  side  of  the  river 


The  Sparrow-Hawk  133 

he  saw  an  old  palace.  It  was  falling  to  pieces 
then,  and  it  must  have  fallen  all  to  pieces  hun- 
dreds of  years  ago,  so  we  cannot  see  it.  An 
old  man  in  poor  clothes,  that  had  once  been 
rich,  sat  at  the  door.  The  old  man  rose  and 
welcomed  Geraint,  and  asked  him  why  he 
came  there.  'I  am  looking  for  a  place  to 
spend  the  night,'  Geraint  answered. 

" '  It  is  but  a  poor  place  that  you  will  find 
with  us,'  the  old  man  answered  ;  '  but,  such  as 
it  is,  you  are  welcome  to  it.  Come  in.' 

"  And  the  old  man  led  Geraint  into  the  hall, 
and  then  into  an  upper  chamber.  And  in  the 
chamber  was  an  old  woman,  dressed,  like  the 
man,  in  poor  clothes  that  had  once  been 
rich.  And  beside  her  sat  a  young  girl,  in  poor 
clothes  too,  but  Geraint  thought  that  he  had 
never  seen  one  more  beautiful. 

"Now  I  am  sure  I  don't  know  what  made 
me  say  'but*  just  then.  Her  being  in  poor 
clothes  was  no  reason  why  she  should  not 
look  beautiful  to  Geraint  or  to  anybody  else. 
And  I  will  stop  right  here  to  tell  you  a  secret. 
It  is  a  secret,  because  there  are  not  half  a  dozen 
girls  in  the  world  who  know  it.  The  others  may 
have  heard  it,  but  they  do  not  believe  it.  It  is 
this :  If  a  girl  or  a  woman  is  really  pretty,  she 
looks  her  very  prettiest  in  the  simplest  and 
plainest  dress  that  she  can  wear.  If  all  the 
girls  and  the  women  in  the  world  were  to  find 


134        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

that  out  all  at  once,  it  would  ruin  more  people's 
business  than  if  the  Bank  of  England  should 
fail. 

"  Well,  while  Geraint  was  looking  at  this 
girl  and  thinking  that  he  had  never  seen  one 
more  beautiful,  the  old  man  said  to  her :  '  Enid, 
there  is  no  one  to  attend  to  this  young  man's 
horse  but  you,'  and  the  girl  went  away  to  look 
after  the  horse. 

"  Perhaps  you  think  that  Geraint  might  have 
looked  after  his  own  horse,  but  that  would 
never  have  done  at  all.  When  Geraint  was 
their  guest,  this  old  man  and  his  wife  and 
their  daughter  would  as  soon  have  thought  of 
turning  him  out  of  doors  into  a  storm  as  of 
letting  him  take  care  of  his  own  horse.  They 
had  no  servant,  and  so  one  of  themselves  had 
to  do  it.  And  when  she  had  given  the  horse 
corn  to  eat  and  straw  for  his  bed,  she  came 
back,  and  then  her  father  sent  her  to  the  town 
to  get  something  for  their  dinner.  By  and  by 
she  came  back  with  a  boy,  bringing  meat  and 
bread  and  wine. 

"Then  they  cooked  the  meat  and  sat  down 
and  ate.  That  is  to  say,  the  old  man  and  his 
wife  and  Geraint  sat  down,  and  Enid  served 
them.  And  when  they  were  done  eating  Ge- 
raint said :  '  Tell  me,  if  you  will,  who  you  are, 
and  why  you  live  in  this  strange  old  palace, 
and  who  owns  it.' 


The  Sparrow-Hawk  135 

"'I  own  it/  the  old  man  answered,  'and  I 
am  Yniol,  and  I  once  owned  the  whole  of  the 
town  yonder,  and  much  more." 

" '  Then  might  I  ask  you/  said  Geraint, '  why 
do  you  not  own  them  now  ? ' 

"'A  nephew  of  mine,'  the  Earl  answered, 
*  made  war  against  me  and  took  them  all  from 
me.  They  call  him  the  Earl  now,  and  he  lives 
in  the  castle  that  you  saw  across  the  river. 
He  has  left  me  nothing  but  this  one  old  house.' 

"'  And  can  you  tell  me/  Geraint  asked,  *  any- 
thing of  the  knight  who  rode  into  the  town  to- 
day with  the  woman  and  the  dwarf,  and  why 
all  the  people  in  the  town  seemed  so  busy?' 

" '  He  came/  said  Yniol, '  for  the  tournament 
which  they  are  to  have  to-morrow,  and  the 
people  of  the  town  are  busy  making  ready 
for  the  tournament.  They  do  this  every  year. 
In  the  meadow  near  the  town  they  set  up  two 
forks,  and  across  the  forks  they  lay  a  silver  rod, 
and  on  the  rod  they  place  a  sparrow-hawk. 
The  sparrow-hawk  is  the  prize  of  the  tourna- 
ment. Every  knight  brings  with  him  the  lady 
that  he  loves  best,  and  it  is  for  her  that  he  tries 
to  win  the  sparrow-hawk.  The  knight  whom 
you  saw  won  it  the  last  year  and  the  year  be- 
fore. If  he  wins  it  again  to-morrow  they  will 
send  it  to  him  every  year,  and  he  will  not  come 
to  fight  for  it  any  more.  To-morrow,  when  the 
sparrow-hawk  is  set  up,  he  will  say  to  the  lady 


136        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

who  is  with  him  that  she  is  the  most  beautiful 
there  and  the  most  worthy  to  have  it,  and  he 
will  tell  her  to  take  it.  Then,  if  any  other 
knight  wishes  to  fight  with  him  for  it,  he  will 
say  that  the  lady  with  him  is  more  beautiful 
and  that  it  belongs  to  her.  And  then  they  will 
fight  to  see  who  can  win  it.' 

"  You  have  noticed  perhaps  that  these  old 
knights  used  to  fight,  sometimes,  about  very 
small  things.  If  one  of  them  refused  to  tell 
another  who  he  was  or  where  he  was  going, 
that  was  quite  enough  to  make  a  fight.  If  one 
of  them  simply  wanted  to  fight,  for  no  reason 
at  all,  the  other  was  usually  very  obliging.  If 
they  both  chanced  to  love  the  same  woman,  of 
course  they  fought  about  that,  and  if  they  loved 
different  women,  they  fought  about  that  too. 
That  was  one  of  the  commonest  reasons  of  all. 
One  said  that  his  lady  was  the  most  beautiful 
in  the  world,  and  the  other  said  that  his  was. 
Then  they  fought.  And  the  queerest  part  of  it 
was  that  when  they  were  done  fighting  both  of 
them  felt  sure  that  the  lady  whose  knight  had 
beaten  was  really  more  beautiful  than  the  other. 
And  it  was  this  kind  of  fight,  it  seems,  that 
they  had  for  the  sparrow-hawk. 

"  Then  Geraint  told  Yniol  of  the  insult  to 
Queen  Guinevere  and  asked  him  to  advise  him 
what  to  do.  '  It  is  not  easy  to  advise  you," 
said  the  old  man.  '  It  would  be  well  if  you 


The  Sparrow-Hawk  137 

could  fight  with  him  in  this  tournament.  I 
would  gladly  lend  you  such  armor  as  I  have 
and  my  horse,  if  you  like  him  better  than  your 
own.  Yet  I  do  not  know  how  you  can  fight  in 
the  tournament,  because  nobody  can  challenge 
him  except  for  the  lady  whom  he  loves  best, 
and  she  must  be  there  with  him.' 

"  Then  Geraint  said  :  '  I  will  take  your  armor 
gladly,  but  I  will  ride  my  own  horse,  for  we 
know  each  other.  And  when  the  time  comes, 
if  you  will  let  me  challenge  for  this  maiden 
here,  your  daughter,  I  will  promise  that  if  I 
am  not  killed  in  the  tournament,  I  will  love  her 
as  long  as  I  live,  and  if  I  am  killed  she  will  be 
free,  and  no  harm  will  have  been  done  to  her.' 

"  And  the  old  man  answered :  '  I  know  that 
you  are  an  honorable  knight,  and  if  the  maiden 
herself  is  pleased,  1  shall  be  pleased  too.'  And 
the  mother  looked  as  glad  as  her  husband,  and 
Enid  turned  away  her  head  and  did  not  say  no. 

"  In  the  morning  they  were  all  in  the  meadow 
outside  the  town,  and  all  the  people  of  the 
town  were  there  too.  And  the  knight  whom 
Geraint  had  followed  the  day  before  rode  out 
in  front  of  them  all  and  told  the  woman  who 
was  with  him  to  take  the  sparrow-hawk,  be- 
cause she  was  the  most  beautiful  of  all  who 
were  there  and  the  best  deserving  of  it.  But 
as  soon  as  he  said  it  Geraint  rode  forward  and 
cried :  '  Do  not  take  it ;  there  is  one  here  who 


138         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

is  more  beautiful  than  you  and  more  worthy  to 
have  the  prize  ! ' 

"  And  the  other  knight  cried  :  '  If  you  think 
your  lady  more  worthy  of  the  prize  than  mine, 
fight  with  me  to  prove  it ! ' 

"  Then  they  took  their  places  far  apart. 
Geraint  wore  Yniol's  armor,  and  it  was  old- 
fashioned  and  rusty,  and  some  of  it  was  broken, 
and  the  other  knight  had  the  newest  and  best 
of  armor,  but  Geraint  remembered  how  the 
dwarf  had  struck  him  in  the  face  with  his  whip, 
and  he  thought  that  he  could  fight  the  man  in 
any  armor  or  in  none.  So  they  rushed  to- 
gether and  broke  both  their  spears.  Then 
Yniol  gave  Geraint  a  new  spear  and  the  dwarf 
gave  one  to  the  other  knight.  And  they 
broke  those  too  and  many  more.  But  at  last 
one  of  Geraint's  spears  held,  and  his  enemy 
was  thrown  from  his  horse's  back  upon  the 
ground. 

"Then  Geraint  sprang  off  his  horse  and 
drew  his  sword,  and  the  other  knight  was  up 
and  ready  for  him.  And  now  the  old  and  poor 
and  worn  armor  that  Geraint  had  on  was 
against  him.  When  they  were  on  horseback 
it  was  not  so  much  matter,  for  then  he  caught 
the  point  of  the  spear  on  his  shield.  But  now 
the  armor  was  so  heavy  and  rusty  that  he 
could  not  move  and  work  in  it  easily,  and  it 
cracked  with  the  blows  of  his  enemy's  sword, 


THE  FIGHT  FOR   THE   SPARFOW-HAWK. 


The  Sparrow-Hawk  139 

and  links  of  the  mail  broke  and  fell  off.  He 
fought  the  harder  because  he  knew  this,  and 
when  he  seemed  to  have  a  little  the  better  of 
the  fight,  the  old  man  called  out  to  him  and 
cheered  him  on.  Then  the  other  knight 
seemed  to  be  fighting  a  little  the  better,  and 
the  cheers  came  from  the  young  Earl  and  his 
friends. 

"  And  both  of  them  got  little  wounds,  and 
blood  and  sweat  ran  down  into  their  eyes,  till 
they  could  scarcely  see.  They  were  both 
striking  wildly,  when  the  old  man  came  to 
Geraint  and  said  to  him :  '  Remember  the  in- 
sult to  your  Queen  !  You  promised  to  avenge 
it !  Do  not  let  her  hear  that  you  were  beaten 
and  could  not  do  it ! ' 

"  And  when  he  heard  that  it  seemed  to  Ger- 
aint that  the  Queen  and  her  maiden,  whom  the 
dwarf  had  struck,  were  looking  at  him.  They 
would  soon  know  and  be  ashamed  if  he  failed, 
and  it  was  as  if  they  were  there  to  see  him  fail. 
And  a  stronger  thought  than  this  was  that 
Enid  really  saw  him,  and  he  must  not  fail. 
And  with  all  the  strength  that  he  had  left 
he  struck  the  knight  upon  the  head  and  broke 
through  his  helmet,  so  that  he  fell  to  the 
ground  with  a  great  wound.  Then  the  knight 
begged  mercy  of  Geraint,  and  Geraint  said  to 
him  :  '  Your  dwarf  would  not  tell  me  who  you 
were  ;  tell  me  now  yourself.' 


140        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

"  And  the  knight  answered :  '  I  am  Edyrn, 
the  son  of  Nudd.' 

"  '  You  shall  have  mercy/  said  Geraint,  '  if 
you  will  go  to  Queen  Guinevere  and  make 
whatever  atonement  she  shall  ask  for  the  insult 
to  her.  Go  now,  and  do  not  get  off  your  horse 
till  you  are  at  the  court  of  Arthur.' 

"  And  Edyrn  answered  :  '  I  will  go.' 

"  Now  whether  there  was  any  more  of  the 
tournament  after  that  I  do  not  know.  I  don't 
see  how  there  could  be,  unless  some  knight 
thought  that  his  lady  was  more  beautiful  than 
Enid,  and  wanted  to  fight  it  out  with  Geraint. 
And  surely  no  one  of  them  did  that.  And  yet 
it  seems  to  me  that,  as  it  was,  there  was  a  pretty 
small  tournament.  If  the  knights  came  there 
intending  to  fight,  why  did  they  not  fight  with 
Geraint  ?  And  if  they  did  not  intend  to  fight, 
why  was  all  that  mighty  polishing  of  swords 
and  cleaning  of  armors  and  shoeing  of  horses 
that  Geraint  had  seen  in  the  town  the  night 
before?  You  see  I  mean  always  to  tell  you 
these  stories  so  that  you  can  understand  them 
just  as  well  as  I  do  myself.  But  if  the  dear  old 
poets  and  story-tellers,  whom  I  never  can  love 
enough,  told  them  in  the  first  place  so  that  no- 
body could  understand  them,  it  isn't  my  fault, 
is  it?  And  so  all  that  I  can  tell  you  now  is 
that  Edyrn,  the  son  of  Nudd,  and  his  lady  and 
his  dwarf  rode  gloomily  away  toward  Caerleon, 


The  Sparrow-Hawk  141 

and  that  the  young  Earl  came  to  Geraint  and 
begged  him  to  come  to  his  castle. 

"  But  Geraint  said  that  he  would  go  nowhere 
in  that  town  but  to  the  house  of  the  old  man, 
where  he  had  stayed  the  night  before.  So  he 
went  home  with  Yniol  and  his  wife  and  Enid, 
and  in  the  evening  the  young  Earl  came  there 
to  visit  him.  And  the  young  Earl  brought 
many  of  his  knights  with  him  and  provisions 
to  make  a  gre»t  feast  for  all  of  them.  And 
when  it  was  over  the  young  Earl  begged 
Geraint  again  to  come  and  visit  him  the  next 
day.  And  Geraint  answered  :  '  No  ;  to-mor- 
row I  must  go  back  to  the  court  of  King 
Arthur.  And  one  reason  why  I  must  go  is  to 
ask  King  Arthur  to  get  back  this  old  man's 
possessions  for  him.' 

" '  You  need  not  go  back  to  him  for  that,' 
said  the  young  Earl.  '  I  will  give  him  back 
everything,  if  you  ask  it.' 

"'I  do  ask  it,  then,'  said  Geraint,  and  the 
young  Earl  kept  his  promise  and  gave  back  to 
Yniol  everything  that  he  had  taken  from  him. 
Oh,  they  did  love  a  good  fighter  in  those  days, 
and  there  was  nothing  that  he  could  ask  of 
them  that  they  would  not  do. 

"  The  next  morning  Geraint  was  ready  to  go 
to  Caerleon.  And  he  asked  where  Enid  was, 
for  of  course  she  was  to  go  with  him.  '  Her 
mother,'  said  Yniol, '  is  dressing  her  the  best 


142         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

she  can,  so  that  she  may  look  fit  to  go  to  the 
court.' 

"  '  Tell  her,'  said  Geraint,  '  to  wear  only  the 
gown  that  I  first  saw  her  in.  For  the  Queen 
promised  me  that  whenever  I  should  bring  a 
bride  to  the  court,  she  herself  would  dress  her 
for  her  marriage  as  no  bride  in  England  was 
ever  dressed  before.' 

"  So  Enid  came  in  her  old,  simple  gown,  and 
she  and  Geraint  rode  away. 

"  And  now  the  story  goes  back  to  the  morn- 
ing when  King  Arthur  and  his  knights  hunted 
the  stag.  They  had  scarcely  let  the  dogs  loose 
and  begun  the  hunt  when  the  stag  ran  close 
to  where  Arthur  was,  and  Arthur  himself  killed 
it  and  cut  off  its  head.  Now  you  remember 
that  before  the  hunt  the  King  had  commanded 
that  the  head  of  the  stag  should  be  given  to 
the  one  who  killed  it,  to  keep  or  to  give  to 
whom  he  pleased.  As  nearly  as  I  can  make 
out,  this  was  an  old  rule,  which  counted  only 
when  one  of  the  knights  or  squires  killed  the 
stag,  and  not  when  the  King  himself  killed  it. 
So  on  the  way  home  they  got  into  a  little  dis- 
pute about  the  stag's  head  and  who  should  have 
it.  I  don't  know  why  the  King  should  not  set- 
tle for  himself  who  should  have  it,  but  it  seems 
he  did  not,  and  they  were  still  talking  of  it 
when  they  came  to  the  castle. 

"  Then  the  Queen  told  them  of  the  insult  that 


The  Sparrow-Hawk  143 

had  been  done  to  her  and  how  Geraint  had 
gone  to  avenge  it.  And  she  said  :  '  Let  us 
wait  till  Geraint  comes  back,  before  we  give 
the  head  of  the  stag  to  any  one.  It  may  be 
that  he  will  deserve  to  have  it  better  than 
any  here.' 

"  And  the^all  agreed.  And  the  next  day  the 
Queen  set  a  watch  on  the  ramparts  of  the  castle 
to  look  for  Geraint.  And  in  the  afternoon  the 
watchmen  saw  a  dwarf  riding  toward  the  cas- 
tle, and  after  him  a  woman,  and  last  of  all  a 
knight,  with  his  armor  broken  and  covered 
with  dust,  riding  slowly  and  hanging  his  head, 
as  if  in  shame  and  grief.  And  one  of  the  watch- 
men went  to  tell  the  Queen.  *  It  must  be  the 
knight  whom  Geraint  followed,'  she  said  ;  '  he 
has  overtaken  him  and  beaten  him  and  sent 
him  here.' 

"  Then  Edyrn,  the  son  of  Nudd,  came  to  the 
gate  and  into  the  hall.  And  he  told  the  Queen 
and  the  King  all  that  had  happened  at  Cardiff 
and  how  Geraint  had  done  and  how  he  had 
sent  him  to  offer  atonement  to  the  Queen. 
Then  they  gave  Edyrn  a  room  in  the  castle 
and  sent  the  King's  physician  to  cure  his 
wounds,  and  again  the  men  on  the  rampart 
watched  for  the  coming  of  Geraint 

"And  the  next  day  the  watchmen  saw 
Geraint  and  Enid  coming.  And  they  told  the 
Queen,  and  she  called  all  her  women  and  went 


144      ^The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

down  to  meet  Geraint  and  to  welcome  him. 
But  when  she  thanked  Geraint  for  fighting  for 
her  and  defending  her  honor,  he  said  :  '  Thank 
this  maiden  here  ;  I  could  not  have  fought  for 
you  if  it  had  not  been  for  her.  I  fought  for 
you  and  for  her  together,  and  she  is  the  bride 
whom  you  said  that  I  should  some  time  bring 
to  the  court.' 

" '  She  is  as  welcome  as  you,'  said  the  Queen, 
'and  I  thank  you  both.' 

"  Then  they  all  went  to  the  hall,  where  the 
King  was  waiting  for  them,  and  he  welcomed 
them  and  thanked  them,  too.  And  everybody 
said  that  Enid  must  have  the  head  of  the  stag. 
And  when  Enid  was  married  to  Geraint,  the 
Queen,  as  she  had  promised,  dressed  her  as  no 
bride  in  England  was  ever  dressed  before. 
Yet,  if  Geraint  was  the  sensible  fellow  that  I 
think  he  was,  I  believe  that  he  thought  her 
more  beautiful  in  the  poor  and  simple  gown 
that  she  wore  when  he  first  saw  her,  and  when 
he  fought  for  her  and  won  the  sparrow-hawk, 
and  when  she  rode  with  him  from  Cardiff  and 
the  poor  old  house  of  her  father  to  Caerleon 
and  the  castle  of  the  King." 


CHAPTER  VTI 

ON  THE  WRONG   SIDE  OF  THE  SEVERN 

"WHAT  did  we  go  to  Cardiff  for?"  said 
Helen's  mother. 

"I  have  explained  all  that  before,**  I  said. 
"  The  mistake  was  not  in  going  to  Cardiff,  bat 
in  choosing  the  wrong  way  to  come  from  it." 

The  way  that  I  had  chosen  to  come  from 
Cardiff  was  by  a  little  steamer  that  was  now 
talcing  us  up  the  river  Severn  and  across  it  to 
Bristol  I  chose  this  way  because  of  one  of  my 
rules  for  travelling.  It  is  a  good  rule,  too,  and 
it  is  this:  never  go  anywhere  by  land  when  you 
can  go  by  water.  But  the  best  rules  fail  some- 
times,  and  this  time  this  one  had  failed  utterly. 
For  the  steamer  was  small  and  not  over-clean, 
it  had  no  cabin  and  nothing  to  sit  on  but  boards 
and  boxes  and  barrels,  and  the  water  was  so 
rough  that  the  boat  danced  about  in  the  most 
unpleasant  way.  As  we  got  farther  from  the 
shore  the  water  grew  rougher  still,  and  when- 


146        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

ever  the  boat  plunged  into  a  wave  the  spray 
dashed  high  up  and  came  down  all  over  the 
deck.  And  it  got  worse  and  worse.  Then  we 
found  a  little  spot  right  in  the  middle  of  the 
boat,  behind  the  funnel  and  a  pile  of  freight, 
and  there  we  sat  on  bags  and  coils  of  rope.  It 
was  selfish  in  us,  no  doubt,  to  stay  there,  for  it 
was  the  only  spot  on  the  steamer  where  the 
flying  spray  did  not  fall,  and  it  was  just  big 
enough  for  us  three.  But  we  thought  that 
since  we  had  been  lucky  enough  to  discover 
the  place  we  might  as  well  have  it  as  anybody, 
and  it  was  not  comfortable  after  all,  only  a  lit- 
tle less  uncomfortable  than  the  rest  of  the  boat. 

"  The  trouble  is,"  I  said,  "  that  we  are  on  the 
wrong  side  of  the  Severn." 

"  I  don't  know  what  you  mean  by  that,"  said 
Helen's  mother;  "  I  wish  that  we  were  safe  on 
either  side.  The  trouble  is  that  we  are  in  the 
middle  of  it." 

"  Not  at  all,"  I  answered  ;  "  I  mean  that  we 
are  on  the  top  side  of  it,  when  we  ought  to  be 
on  the  bottom  side." 

"  Ought  to  be  on  the  bottom  side !  I  am 
afraid  we  shall  be  if  it  gets  a  little  rougher." 

"  Yes,  madam,  I  am  told  that  there  is  a  very 
good  tunnel  under  the  river  and  that  that  is 
one  way  to  get  from  Cardiff  to  Bristol.  I  de- 
cided to  come  this  way  because  I  thought  that 
there  would  probably  be  more  to  see  above  the 


On  the    Wrong  Side  of  the  Severn    147 

river  than  under  it.  I  am  sorry  now,  because, 
though  the  bottom  of  the  river  may  be  darker 
than  the  top,  it  is  probably  smoother." 

"  Then  it  wasn't  necessary  to  come  on  this 
horrible  little  boat?" 

"  No  ;  it  was  a  dreadful  mistake.  Still  I  do 
not  think  it  was  my  fault  that  the  larger  boat 
needed  repairing  just  at  this  particular  time,  so 
that  they  had  to  use  this  one." 

"  Oh,  no,  I  suppose  it  wasn't;  but  only  to 
think  of  all  we  are  going  through,  and  it  wasn't 
even  necessary ! " 

"  Madam,"  I  said,  "  I  feel  what  a  wrong  I 
have  done  much  more  than  you  can.  To  prove 
it,  if  you  like,  I  will  not  try  to  guide  you  any 
more.  I  will  give  up  our  first  agreement ;  you 
shall  take  charge  of  the  whole  journey,  and  I 
will  go  wherever  you  say." 

And  now  I  have  a  chance  to  show  you  what 
a  truly  great  and  good  woman  Helen's  mother 
is,  for  she  only  answered:  "Don't  be  silly; 
everybody  makes  mistakes  sometimes." 

"  But  it's  too  bad,"  Helen  said,  "  to  have  to 
sit  here  and  get  bobbed  up  and  down,  with 
nothing  but  this  dirty  yellow  water  all  around, 
and  not  even  any  places  to  tell  stories  about." 

Then  I  began  to  cheer  up,  for  such  a  direct 
challenge  as  this  seemed  really  good  and  old- 
fashioned. 

"  Do  you  dare  to  think,  my   child,"   I  said, 


148        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

"  after  all  the  years  that  you  have  known  me, 
that  I  cannot  tell  you  a  story  anywhere  I 
choose,  by  land  or  sea?  And  do  you  think 
that  only  the  hills  and  the  towns  and  the  fields 
here  in  England  have  stories,  and  that  the 
rivers  have  none  ?  Why,  how  do  you  suppose 
this  river  came  to  be  called  the  Severn  at  all  ?" 

Helen  did  not  seem  to  have  any  particular 
thoughts  about  it,  but  she  looked  at  the  river 
with  a  little  more  favor.  "  Once,  long,  long  be- 
fore King  Arthur's  time,"  I  said,  "  there  was  a 
king  of  England  named  Locrin.  It  was  not 
called  England  then.  It  was  called  Logris, 
after  him,  and  when  you  are  old  enough  to 
read  very  old  books  you  will  find  it  called 
Logris  often.  Now  this  Locrin  was  lucky 
enough  once  to  conquer  a  king  named  Humber. 
While  Humber  was  running  away  he  got 
drowned  in  a  river.  Then  they  thought  they 
could  not  do  better  than  to  name  the  river 
after  him,  and  there  it  is,  up  in  the  other  end 
of  England  now,  name  and  all.  So  Humber 
fought  and  ran  away,  but  did  not  live  to  fight 
another  day. 

"  And  besides  some  other  things  that  Locrin 
captured  from  Humber  he  took  a  prisoner. 
This  was  a  beautiful  German  princess,  whom 
Humber  had  carried  off,  after  he  had  conquered 
her  father's  country,  and  her  name  was  Estril- 
dis.  Locrin  straightway  fell  in  love  with  her 


On  He   Wrong  SuU  of  ike  Severn   149 

and  wanted  to  marry  her,  but  he  had  already 
promised  to  marry  the  daughter  of  the  Duke 
ofCorawalL  Probably  this  promise  would  not 
hare  disturbed  him  much,  but  the  Duke  was 
very  particular  about  it.  The  old  priest  who 
wrote  this  story  and  called  it  history,  says  that 
he  brought  a  battle-axe  with  him  when  became 
to  talk  with  the  King  about  it.  Of  course  Loc- 
rin  liked  to  have  his  own  way  as  well  as  most 
people,  but  he  was  ready  to  listen  to  good  argu- 
ments. So,  when  the  Duke  of  Cornwall  placed 
the  matter  clearly  before  him,  he  said  he  would 
marry  the  Duke's  daughter,  and  he  did. 

"  But  the  King  had  a  palace  made  for  Estril- 
dis,  all  underground,  so  that  she  could  never 
be  found  by  the  Duke  of  Cornwall  or  anybody 
else  who  might  want  to  harm  her.  And  after 
seven  years  the  Duke  died,  and  then  the  King 
divorced  the  Duke's  daughter,  brought  Estril 
dis  up  out  of  the  ground,  and  made  her  his  wife 
and  his  Queen.  And  Locrin  and  Estrildis  had 
a  daughter,  whom  they  named  Sabre.  Now  of 
course  the  Duke's  daughter  did  not  like  the 
way  things  were  going,  and  after  awhile  she 
resolved  to  do  something  about  it.  She  went 
back  to  Cornwall  and  told  the  people  there 
how  badly  she  had  been  treated,  and  she  raised 
an  army  to  go  and  fight  the  King  of  England. 
They  did  fight,  and  Locrin  was  killed. 

"Then  the   Duke's  daughter  made  herself 


150         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

Queen  again  and  ordered  poor  Estrildis  and 
her  daughter  Sabre  to  be  thrown  into  this 
great  river  that  we  are  crossing.  Then,  from 
the  name  of  Sabre,  they  called  the  river  Sabren, 
and  by  some  twisting  or  other  that  name  has 
got  turned  into  Severn." 

"  I  don't  think  that  is  much  of  a  story,"  said 
Helen. 

"  Perhaps  it  isn't,"  I  admitted  ;  "  but  you 
know  we  are  not  in  a  very  good  place  to  enjoy 
stories.  Now  what  if  I  were  to  tell  you  a 
rather  livelier  story,  with  plenty  of  things  in  it 
that  are  hard  to  believe  ?  Perhaps  trying  to 
believe  them  will  make  you  forget  how  uncom- 
fortable you  are.  At  any  rate  I  will  try  it. 

"  I  have  told  you  before  that  there  used  to 
be  a  great  many  little  kings  scattered  all  over 
England.  One  of  these  kings  had  a  wife,  with 
a  hard  name  to  pronounce,  and  a  son.  The 
story  is  not  about  the  King  or  his  wife,  so  their 
names  do  not  matter.  It  is  about  the  son,  and 
his  name  was  Kilhooch.  When  Kilhooch  was 
still  a  child  his  mother  fell  sick  and  felt  sure 
that  she  was  going  to  die.  She  feared  that 
after  she  was  dead  the  King  would  marry 
again,  and  that  her  son  would  have  a  step- 
mother who  would  not  treat  him  kindly.  So 
she  made  the  King  promise  that  he  would  not 
marry  till  he  should  see  a  briar  with  two  blos- 
soms growing  on  her  grave.  Then  she  died. 


On  the   Wrong  Side  of  the  Severn    1 5 1 

"  Seven  years  after  the  King  rode  hunting 
one  day  and  passeA  near  the  Queen's  grave,  and 
saw  that  there  was  a  briar  with  two  blossoms 
growing  on  it.  So,  as  he  was  getting  rather 
tired  of  living  alone,  he  at  once  found  another 
wife,  as  kings  never  seem  to  have  any  trouble 
in  doing.  Kilhooch  was  getting  to  be  a  fine 
young  man  by  this  time,  and  almost  the  first 
thing  that  his  step-mother  said  to  him  was  that 
he  ought  to  have  a  wife  too.  Kilhooch  an- 
swered that  he  thought  he  was  too  young  to 
marry.  Then  the  step-mother  said  :  '  I  believe 
that  you  will  never  be  pleased  with  any  woman 
for  your  wife  except  Olwen,  the  daughter  of 
Yspaddaden  Penkawr.' 

"Now  I  don't  know  why  Kilhooch's  step- 
mother told  him  this.  It  was  not  at  all  easy  for 
a  young  man  to  get  Olwen,  the  daughter  of 
Yspaddaden  Penkawr,  and  perhaps  his  step- 
mother hoped  that  he  would  be  killed  in  trying 
to  do  it.  You  know  step-mothers  are  almost 
always  wicked,  in  stories.  But  then,  she  knew, 
too,  how  sweet  and  lovely  Olwen  was,  and  per- 
haps when  she  saw  what  a  beautiful  and  brave- 
looking  boy  Kilhooch  was,  she  thought  that  he 
was  just  the  one  who  deserved  such  a  wife,  and 
that  he  would  prize  her  all  the  more  if  he  had  a 
little  trouble  in  getting  her.  I  am  quite  will- 
ing to  believe  that  this  was  her  reason,  because 
I  never  heard  of  her  doing  anything  else  that 


152         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

was  bad.  At  any  rate  Kilhooch  fell  so  deeply 
in  love  with  the  very  thought  of  Olwen  that 
his  father  asked  him  what  was  the  matter.  '  My 
step-mother  says,'  he  answered,  '  that  I  shall 
never  find  any  one  to  please  me  for  my  wife 
except  Olwen,  the  daughter  of  Yspaddaden 
Penkawr,  and  I  do  not  know  how  I  am  to  get 
her.' 

"  '  That  will  be  easy  enough,'  said  his  father ; 
'  go  to  King  Arthur  and  ask  him  to  help  you.' 

"  I  don't  suppose  you  would  believe  me  if  I 
told  you  how  Kilhooch  dressed  himself  and 
equipped  himself  and  his  horse  and  his  dogs 
to  go  to  the  court  of  King  Arthur.  And  yet 
you  may  as  well  believe  whatever  you  hear 
about  the  way  a  very  young  man  dresses  when 
he  is  very  much  in  love.  There  was  gold 
pretty  nearly  everywhere,  except  where  there 
was  something  better.  The  hilt  of  his  sword 
was  of  gold,  and  around  his  body  he  wore  a 
cloth  of  purple,  with  a  gold  apple  at  each  cor- 
ner, and  each  of  them  was  worth  a  hundred 
cattle.  His  horse  had  a  saddle  of  gold  and  his 
dogs  had  collars  of  rubies.  He  had  two  spears 
of  silver,  so  sharp  that  they  could  wound  the 
wind  and  make  blood  flow.  And  his  horse 
stepped  so  lightly  that  it  did  not  bend  a  blade 
of  grass  under  its  hoofs. 

"  When  he  came  to  Arthur's  court  he  rode 
straight  into  the  hall  on  his  horse  and  said : 


On  the   Wrong  Side  of  the  Severn    1 53 

'  King  Arthur,  I  am  Prince  Kilhooch,  and  I 
have  come  to  ask  a  gift  of  you.' 

"'You  shall  have  any  gift,'  said  Arthur, 
'  that  is  in  reason  and  is  not  against  my  hon- 
or or  my  kingdom.' 

"  *  I  ask  of  you,'  said  the  young  man,  '  that 
you  help  me  to  get  Olwen,  the  daughter  of 
Yspaddaden  Penkawr,  for  my  wife.  And  I 
ask  it,  too,  of  all  your  knights.' 

"  Now  this  young  Kilhooch  was  really  a  re- 
markable boy,  for  he  knew  the  names  of  all 
Arthur's  knights,  and  when  he  asked  them  to 
help  him  he  named  them  all.  I  am  not  going 
to  name  the  knights  for  you,  partly  because  it 
would  take  too  long  and  partly  because  I  can't, 
but  Kilhooch  named  them  till  I  am  sure 
everybody  must  have  been  tired  of  hearing 
him.  And  the  old  book  where  this  story  is 
written  tells  some  remarkable  things  about 
some  of  the  knights.  I  don't  suppose  you 
would  believe  them  if  I  should  repeat  them  for 
you.  There  was  one  of  them  who  walked  on 
his  head,  to  save  his  feet.  There  was  one  who 
was  so  beautiful  that  in  battle  no  one  touched 
him  with  a  spear,  because  all  thought  he  was 
an  angel,  and  there  was  another  who  was  so 
ugly  that  no  one  touched  him,  because  they 
thought  he  was  a  devil.  There  was  one  who 
could  walk  across  a  wood  on  the  tops  of  the 
trees.  Another  could  jump  over  three  hun- 


154         The   Court  of  King  ArtJmr 

dred  acres  of  ground,  and  still  another  could 
stand  on  one  foot  all  day.  There  was  one  who 
could  beat  a  barn  with  an  iron  flail  till  all  that 
was  left  of  it  was  as  fine  as  the  oats  on  the  floor. 
One  could  spread  his  beard  over  the  eight  and 
forty  rafters  in  Arthur's  hall.  Two,  the  attend- 
ants of  Guinevere,  had  feet  as  swift  as  their 
thoughts  when  they  bore  a  message.  But  the 
story  does  not  say  how  swift  their  thoughts 
were.  Another  had  ears  so  good  that  he  could 
hear  an  ant  fifty  miles  off  rise  from  its  nest  in 
the  morning,  and  one  had  eyes  so  good  that  he 
could  see  a  mote  in  a  sunbeam  the  whole  length 
of  England.  You  can  do  just  as  you  like  about 
believing  all  these  things.  You  know  I  told 
you  in  the  first  place  that  some  things  in  this 
story  might  be  rather  hard.  I  don't  more  than 
half  believe  in  these  wonderful  knights  of 
Arthur's  myself,  particularly  because  I  never 
heard  of  them  except  in  this  one  story. 

"  But  when  Kilhooch  had  called  on  all  of 
them,  together  and  separately,  to  help  him  to 
get  Olwen,  the  daughter  of  Yspaddaden  Pen- 
kawr,  the  King  answered  him :  '  I  have  never 
heard  of  the  maiden  of  whom  you  speak,  but 
I  will  gladly  send  men  to  search  for  her  and 
they  shall  find  her  for  you  if  they  can.' 

"  Then  Kay  said  to  the  young  man :  '  Go 
with  us  and  we  will  not  part  till  we  find  her, 
and  you  shall  have  her.' 


On  the   Wrong  Side  of  the  Severn   155 

"  Then  Arthur  called  Sir  Bedivere,  one  of 
his  best  knights,  and  Kyndelig,  the  guide,  and 
told  them  to  go  with  Kilhooch  and  Kay.  This 
Kyndelig  was  just  as  good  a  guide  in  a  coun- 
try that  he  had  never  seen  before  as  he  was  in 
his  own.  You  see  he  was  much  better  at  the 
business  than  I  am.  He  would  never  have 
brought  you  out  in  this  little  jumping  boat  on 
this  dingy  Severn,  just  because  he  had  never 
seen  it  before.  And  Arthur  told  Gawain  to  go 
with  them,  and  Goorhyr,  who  understood  all 
languages,  even  those  of  animals  and  birds. 
And  he  sent  Menoo  with  them,  who  could  cast 
very  useful  spells  over  things. 

"So,  all  together,  they  set  out,  and  when 
they  had  travelled  a  long  way  they  came  to  a 
great  plain,  and  across  it  they  saw  a  great, 
beautiful  castle.  It  was  morning  when  they 
saw  it  first  and  they  thought  that  it  was  not 
far  off,  yet  they  went  toward  it  till  evening  and 
then  it  looked  no  nearer  than  at  first.  And  all 
the  next  day  they  went  on,  and  all  the  next, 
and  it  was  not  till  the  evening  of  that  third  day 
that  they  found  they  were  really  near  the  cas- 
tle. 

"  Then  they  came  to  a  flock  of  sheep  that 
covered  the  whole  plain,  as  far  as  they  could 
see,  and  on  a  mound  sat  a  herdsman.  His  dress 
was  made  of  skins,  and  beside  him  was  a  dog  as 
big  as  a  horse.  Menoo  cast  a  spell  upon  the 


156        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

dog,  so  that  he  could  not  hurt  them,  and  then 
they  went  forward.  '  Herdsman/  said  Kay, 
'  whose  castle  is  this  ? ' 

" « You  are  stupid  not  to  know  that,'  the 
herdsman  answered  ;  '  all  the  world  knows  that 
this  is  the  castle  of  Yspaddaden  Penkawr.' 

"  '  And  who  are  you,  herdsman  ? ' 

"  I  am  Custennin,  the  brother  of  Yspaddaden 
Penkawr,  and  he  treats  me  cruelly  because  I 
have  great  possessions,  and  he  wants  them. 
And  who  are  you  ?  ' 

" '  We  are  the  men  of  Arthur,'  Kay  answered, 
'  and  we  have  come  with  this  young  man,  Kil- 
hooch,  to  find  Olwen,  the  daughter  of  Yspad- 
daden Penkawr,  that  she  may  be  his  wife.' 
.  "  '  Then  go  back  to  Arthur,'  said  Custennin, 
4  for  no  one  who  came  here  to  seek  Olwen  ever 
went  away  again  alive.' 

"  Then  Custennin  rose  to  go  away,  and  Kil- 
hooch  gave  him  a  ring,  and  he  took  it  home 
and  gave  it  to  his  wife.  '  Where  did  you  get 
this  ring  ?  '  she  asked. 

" '  From  Kilhooch,'  he  answered,  '  who  has 
come  to  find  Olwen  and  to  marry  her.' 

"  Then  the  knights  themselves  came  to  Cus- 
tennin's  house,  and  Custennin's  wife  ran  out  to 
meet  them.  And  she  was  so  glad  to  see  them 
that  she  wanted  to  embrace  Kay,  who  came 
first.  But  Kay,  who  was  not  usually  very 
clever,  happened  to  have  a  wonderfully  happy 


On  the   Wrong  Side  of  the  Severn    157 

thought  just  then.  He  picked  up  a  log  from  a 
pile  that  lay  near  and  put  it  in  the  woman's 
arms  and  she  hugged  it  till  the  wood  was  all  in 
shreds.  '  If  you  had  squeezed  me  like  that,' 
said  Kay,  '  nobody  would  ever  have  loved  me 
again.' 

"  Then  the  woman  opened  a  chest,  and  out 
of  it  came  a  handsome  young  man.  '  Why  do 
you  hide  this  boy  so  ? '  asked  Goorhyr. 

'"I  hide  him,'  the  woman  said,  'because  he 
is  the  only  one  that  is  left  of  my  twenty-four 
sons.  Yspaddaden  Penkawr  has  killed  all  the 
rest,  and  I  know  he  will  find  this  one  and  kill 
him  too,  some  time,  in  spite  of  all  that  I  can 
do.' 

"'Then  let  him  come  with  me,'  said  Kay, 
'  and  he  shall  not  be  killed  unless  I  am  killed 
too.' 

"  '  Why  do  you  come  here  ?  '  the  woman 
asked,  though  she  knew  already. 

" '  We  come  to  seek  Olwen,'  Kay  answered. 

"  *  Then,'  said  the  woman,  '  go  away  before 
any  one  in  the  castle  knows  that  you  are  here, 
or  you  will  all  be  killed.  They  have  all  been 
killed  who  ever  came  before  to  seek  her.' 

"  '  We  will  not  go,'  said  Kay  again,  '  till  we 
see  Olwen.  Will  she  come  here,  if  you  send 
for  her  ? ' 

" '  Yes,'  said  the  woman,  '  but  I  will  not  be- 
tray her  when  she  trusts  me.  I  will  not  send 


158         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

for  her  unless  you  promise  that  you  will  do  her 
no  harm.' 

" '  We  promise,'  they  all  said,  so  the  woman 
sent  for  Olwen  and  she  came.  Now  I  know 
just  exactly  how  beautiful  Olwen  was,  but  I 
am  not  going  to  tell  you,  because  you  would 
only  laugh  at  me  and  tell  me  that  the  loveliest 
girl  in  the  world  is  always  the  one  that  I  hap- 
pen to  be  telling  a  story  about.  Well,  what  of 
it?  Isn't  that  the  way  to  tell  stories?  I  will 
only  tell  you  that  clover  grew  up  wherever 
Olwen  stepped  on  the  ground,  and  that  as  soon 
as  Kilhooch  saw  her  he  loved  her  even  more 
than  he  did  before  he  saw  her.  And,  having 
no  time  to  waste,  he  told  her  so  at  once  and 
asked  her  to  come  away  with  him. 

"  She  did  not  seem  at  all  surprised  to  hear 
him  say  that  he  loved  her.  I  dare  say  she  was 
quite  used  to  it,  though  nobody  had  ever  loved 
her  before  and  lived.  But  she  said  :  '  I  cannot 
go  with  you  yet,  because  I  have  promised  my 
father  that  I  will  never  be  married  till  he  says 
I  may.  You  must  go  to  my  father  and  ask 
him,  and  whatever  he  tells  you  to  do,  you  must 
do  it.  If  you  do  not,  you  will  never  get  me, 
and  you  will  scarcely  save  your  own  life.' 

"  Now  the  reason  why  Yspaddaden  Penkawr 
made  his  daughter  promise  never  to  be  mar- 
ried without  his  leave  was  that  it  had  been 
prophesied  that  he  should  die  on  the  day  when 


On  the   Wrong  Side  of  the  Severn    159 

his  daughter  was  married.  That  was  why  he 
set  tasks  that  he  thought  were  impossible  for 
all  the  lovers  who  came  to  seek  her,  and  that 
was  why  he  killed  them  when  they  failed  in  the 


"  So  they  all  went  to  the  castle  and  stood  be- 
fore Yspaddaden  Penkawr.  'We  have  come/ 
they  said,  to  ask  your  daughter  Olwen  for  this 
young  man,  Prince  Kilhooch/ 

"  Yspaddaden  Penkawr  could  not  see  them, 
because  his  eyebrows  were  so  heavy  that  they 
had  fallen  down  over  his  eyes.  •  Where  are  my 
servants  ? '  he  said.  *  Raise  up  the  forks  under 
my  eyebrows,  so  that  I  may  see  what  my  son- 
in-law  looks  like.  Is  it  you  who  want  my 
daughter?1 

-  And  Kilhooch  answered :    •  It  is  I.* 

"  •  You  must  promise  then,'  said  Yspaddaden 
Penkawr,  'to  do  everything  that  I  ask,  and 
when  you  have  done  all  that  I  ask  you  shall 
have  her/ 

" '  I  promise/  said  Kilhooch. 

"  •  Do  you  see  the  land  out  yonder  ? '  said 
Yspaddaden  Penkawr.  4  When  I  first  met  the 
mother  of  this  maiden  nine  bushels  of  flax  were 
sown  there,  and  none  of  it  ever  grew.  I  re- 
quire you  to  get  back  all  the  seed,  so  that  it 
may  be  sown  in  new  ground,  that  a  wimple  may 
be  made  from  the  flax  for  my  daughter  to  wear 
on  the  day  when  she  is  married  to  you.' 


160        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

"  '  That  will  be  easy  to  do,'  said  Kilhooch. 

"'Though  you  do  this/  said  Yspaddaden 
Penkawr,  '  there  is  something  else  which  you 
cannot  do.  For  my  daughter's  wedding  my 
hair  must  be  cut  and  combed,  and  I  must  be 
shaved.  My  hair  and  my  beard  are  so  stiff 
and  strong  that  this  cannot  be  done  except 
with  the  scissors  and  the  comb  and  the  razor 
that  are  between  the  ears  of  the  wild  boar 
Toorch  Trooyth.  He  was  a  king  who  was 
turned  into  a  wild  boar  for  his  wickedness. 
He  will  not  give  up  the  scissors  and  the  comb 
and  the  razor  of  himself  and  you  cannot  take 
them  from  him.' 

"  '  That  will  be  easy  to  do,'  said  Kilhooch. 

"  '  You  cannot  hunt  Toorch  Trooyth,'  said 
Yspaddaden  Penkawr,  '  without  the  help  of 
Mabon,  the  son  of  Modron.  He  was  taken 
from  his  mother  when  he  was  only  three  days 
old  and  no  one  knows  where  he  is  now/ 

"  '  It  will  be  easy  to  find  him/  said  Kilhooch. 

"  '  No  one  can  find  him/  said  Yspaddaden 
Penkawr,  'except  his  cousin  Eidoel.  You  must 
find  Eidoel  first  and  you  cannot  do  that.' 

"  '  That  will  be  easy  to  do/  said  Kilhooch. 

" '  Though  you  do  this,  there  is  something 
else  which  you  cannot  do.  You  must  have  the 
sword  of  the  giant  Goornach.  He  will  not 
give  it  or  sell  it,  and  you  cannot  take  it  from 
him.' 


On  the   Wrong  Side  of  the  Severn    161 

" '  It  will  be  easy  for  me  to  get  it' 

"  « In  all  these  things  you  will  have  labor  and 
trouble.  You  will  never  do  them  and  you  will 
never  win  my  daughter.' 

"'King  Arthur  will  help  me  in  all  these 
things  and  I  shall  win  your  danghter.' 

"  *  Go,  then,'  said  Yspaddaden  Penkawr, 
*  and  when  you  have  done  all  these  things  come 
back  to  me  and  you  shall  have  her.' 

"  Then  Kilhooch  and  the  knights  who  were 
with  him  and  the  son  of  Custennin  left  the 
castle  of  Yspaddaden  Penkawr  and  travelled 
far,  till  they  came  before  the  largest  castle 
they  had  ever  seen.  They  went  to  the  gate 
and  knocked.  '  Whose  castle  is  this  ? '  said 
Goorhyr. 

" '  It  is  the  castle  of  the  giant  Goornach,'  the 
porter  answered. 

" '  Can  we  come  in  ?  '  said  Goorhyr. 

" '  No,'  said  the  porter,  '  the  knife  is  in  the 
meat  and  the  drink  is  in  the  horn  and  there  is 
revelry  in  the  hall,  and  no  one  can  come  in 
to-night  except  a  craftsman  who  brings  his 
craft.' 

" '  Then  I  am  a  craftsman,'  said  Kay. 

"'  What  is  your  craft?' 

"  '  I  am  a  burnisher  of  swords.' 

•  I  will  tell  the  giant  Goornach,'  said  the 
porter,  '  and  bring  you  an  answer.' 

"  So  the  porter  went  to  the  giant  and  told 


1 62        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

him  that  there  were  some  men  at  the  gate  who 
wanted  to  come  in,  and  that  one  of  them  said 
that  he  could  burnish  swords.  '  Bring  him  in,' 
said  the  giant ;  '  I  have  wanted  some  one  for 
a  long  time  to  burnish  my  sword.' 

"  So  Kay  was  let  in  and  the  giant's  sword 
was  brought  to  him.  And  Kay  took  out  a 
whetstone  and  polished  half  the  sword.  Then 
he  gave  it  to  the  giant  and  asked  if  it  pleased 
him.  '  It  is  well  done,'  said  the  giant;  'make 
the  rest  of  it  like  this.' 

"  And  when  Kay  had  finished  polishing  the 
sword  he  said  :  'It  is  the  scabbard  that  has 
rusted  the  sword.  Give  it  to  me,  so  that  I  can 
take  out  the  old  wooden  sides  and  put  in  new 
ones.' 

"  And  the  giant  gave  him  the  scabbard, 
and  as  he  stood  close  to  the  giant,  as  if  he 
were  about  to  put  the  sword  into  the  scab- 
bard, suddenly  he  struck  the  giant  with  it  and 
cut  off  his  head  with  one  blow.  Then  Kay  left 
the  castle,  and  he  and  Kilhooch  and  the  others 
went  to  King  Arthur  and  carried  the  sword 
of  the  giant  Goornach  with  them. 

"  They  told  Arthur  all  that  they  had  done, 
and  when  he  had  heard  the  story  he  said  : 
'  Which  of  these  things  that  we  must  do  for 
Prince  Kilhooch  will  it  be  best  to  try  first? ' 

" '  We  cannot  hunt  Toorch  Trooyth,'  they 
said,  '  without  the  help  of  Mabon,  the  son  of 


On  the   Wrong  Side  of  the  Severn    163 

Modron,  and  we  cannot  find  him  without  his 
cousin  Eidoel.' 

"  Now  Eidoel  was  a  prisoner  in  the  castle  of 
Glivi.  But  Glivi  gave  him  up  to  Arthur  as 
soon  as  he  asked  for  him,  and  then  Arthur  went 
back  to  his  own  castle  and  left  the  rest  of  them 
to  find  Mabon,  the  son  of  Modron.  And  why 
they  should  go  first  of  all  to  the  Blackbird  of 
Cilgoori  I  don't  know,  but  they  did.  And 
Goorhyr,  who  understood  all  languages,  you 
know,  said :  '  Blackbird  of  Cilgoori,  do  you 
know  anything  of  Mabon,  the  son  of  Modron, 
who  was  taken  from  his  mother  when  he  was 
three  days  old  ?  ' 

"  And  the  Blackbird  answered  :  '  There  was 
an  anvil  here  when  I  first  came,  and  I  was  a 
young  bird  then.  Nothing  has  touched  that 
anvil  since  then  except  my  beak,  with  which  I 
have  pecked  at  it  every  morning.  And  now 
there  is  scarcely  so  much  left  of  it  as  the  size 
of  a  walnut  Yet  in  all  that  time  I  have  never 
heard  anything  of  Mabon,  the  son  of  Modron. 
But  I  will  lead  you  to  the  Stag  of  Redynvre. 
He  is  older  than  I.' 

"  And  when  they  found  the  Stag  Goorhyr 
said  :  '  Stag  of  Redynvre,  we  are  an  embassy 
from  King  Arthur.  Tell  us  if  you  know  any- 
thing of  Mabon,  the  son  of  Modron.' 

"  Then  the  stag  answered :  '  When  I  came 
to  this  place  there  was  no  tree  here,  but  only 


164        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

an  oak  sapling.  That  sapling  grew  to  be  a 
great  oak,  and  it  lived  its  life  and  died,  and  now 
there  is  nothing  left  of  it  but  a  stump,  yet  in 
all  that  time  I  have  never  heard  of  Mabon,  the 
son  of  Modron.  But  I  will  lead  you  to  one  who 
is  older  than  I.' 

"So  they  went  with  the  Stag  and  he  led 
them  to  the  Owl  of  Coom  Cawlwyd.  And 
Goorhyr  said  :  '  Owl  of  Coom  Cawlwyd,  we 
are  an  embassy  from  King  Arthur.  Tell  us  if 
you  know  anything  of  Mabon,  the  son  of  Mo- 
dron.' 

"  '  When  I  came  to  this  place,'  said  the  Owl, 
'  this  wide  valley  which  you  see  was  covered 
with  a  wood.  Men  came  and  rooted  it  up  and 
another  wood  grew,  and  the  one  which  is  here 
now  is  the  third,  yet  in  all  that  time  I  have 
never  heard  of  Mabon,  the  son  of  Modron. 
But  I  will  take  you  to  the  oldest  animal  in  the 
world,  the  Eagle  of  Gwern  Abwy.' 

"  So  the  Owl  led  the  way,  and  again  Goor- 
hyr said :  '  Eagle  of  Gwern  Abwy,  we  are  an 
embassy  from  King  Arthur.  Tell  us  if  you 
know  anything  of  Mabon,  the  son  of  Modron.' 

"  And  the  Eagle  answered  :  '  When  I  came  to 
this  place  there  was  a  rock  here  so  high  that  I 
could  perch  on  the  top  of  it  and  peck  at  the 
stars.  It  has  been  worn  away  now  till  it  is 
scarcely  a  span  high,  and  I  have  never  heard 
of  Mabon,  the  son  of  Modron.  Yet,  once,  when 


On  the   Wrong  Side  of  the  Severn    165 

I  was  looking  for  food,  I  saw  a  great  Salmon. 
I  tried  to  catch  him,  but  he  dragged  me  under 
the  water  and  I  scarcely  saved  my  life.  Then 
I  and  many  other  eagles  went  to  attack  the 
Salmon  and  to  destroy  him,  but  he  made  peace 
with  me  and  I  took  fifty  fish  spears  out  of  his 
back.  He  travels  much,  and  he  may  have 
heard  of  Mabon,  the  son  of  Modron.' 

"  Then  they  all  followed  the  Eagle,  and  he 
led  them  to  this  same  river  Severn,  and  they 
found  the  Salmon  of  Llyn  Llyw.  And  the 
Eagle  said :  *  Salmon  of  Llyn  Llyw,  I  have 
brought  to  you  an  embassy  from  King  Arthur, 
to  ask  if  you  know  anything  of  Mabon,  the  son 
of  Modron.' 

"  And  the  Salmon  answered :  '  Sometimes  I 
go  up  this  river  as  far  as  Gloucester.  There 
stands  a  great  castle,  and  in  a  dungeon  I  have 
heard  wailing  and  groaning.  Let  two  of  you 
stand  on  my  shoulders  and  I  will  take  you 
there,  and  you  can  see  and  hear  for  yourselves/ 

"  So  Kay  and  Goorhyr  stood  on  the  Salmon's 
shoulders  and  he  swam  with  them  up  the  Sev- 
ern to  Gloucester.  And  there  they  found  the 
castle,  and  from  the  dungeon,  just  as  the  Sal- 
mon had  said,  came  a  sound  of  some  one  groan- 
ing and  lamenting.  Then  Goorhyr  called  out 
and  asked  who  it  was  in  the  dungeon,  and  the 
voice  in  the  dungeon  answered  :  '  I  am  Mabon, 
the  son  of  Modron.' 


i66         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

" '  And  can  you  be  released  from  this  prison,' 
Goorhyr  asked,  *  for  money  or  for  gifts  or  by 
fighting  ? ' 

"'If  I  am  ever  released,'  the  voice  answered, 
'it  must  be  by  fighting.' 

"  Then  Kay  and  Goorhyr  went  back  to  their 
companions,  and  they  all  went  to  King  Arthur 
and  told  him  where  Mabon,  the  son  of  Modron, 
was.  Then  Arthur  called  his  warriors  and  they 
went  and  laid  siege  to  the  castle.  And  while 
the  men  of  the  castle  were  busy  fighting  with 
the  army  in  front,  the  Salmon  took  Kay  and 
Bedivere  to  the  back,  and  they  broke  through 
the  wall  and  took  Mabon,  the  son  of  Modron, 
out.  Then,  as  they  wanted  nothing  more, 
Arthur  and  his  army  went  home." 

"  And  what  did  that  cousin  of  Mabon's  have 
to  do  with  it  ?  "  Helen  asked.  "  I  thought  he 
had  to  help  them  somehow." 

"  I  am  sure  I  don't  know,"  I  had  to  admit. 
"  Yspaddaden  Penkawr  told  them  that  they 
could  not  find  Mabon,  the  son  of  Modron,  un- 
less they  found  Eidoel  first,  and  so  they  found 
him.  But  the  story  does  not  say  that  he  did 
anything  afterward,  more  than  all  the  rest  of 
them  did.  I  rather  think  that  Yspaddaden 
Penkawr  tried  to  think  of  as  many  things  as 
he  could  for  his  son-in-law  to  do,  just  to  make 
his  task  long  and  hard.  And  I  am  not  sure 
that  they  could  not  have  hunted  Toorch 


On  the   Wrong  Side  of  the  Severn    167 

Trooyth  just  as  well  without  Mabon,  the  son 
of  Modron,  himself." 

"  I  shouldn't  think,"  Helen  suggested,  "  that 
he  would  be  any  better  hunter  than  anybody 
else,  if  he  had  been  in  prison  ever  since  he  was 
three  days  old." 

"  I  shouldn't  think  so  either.  But  perhaps 
there  was  some  sort  of  magic,  some  charm, 
about  having  Eidoel  and  Mabon,  the  son  of 
Modron,  with  them,  whether  they  really  did 
anything  or  not.  All  I  am  sure  about  is  that 
the  story  says  they  had  to  have  them  and  they 
did  have  them.  And  about  the  time  that  they 
got  Mabon,  the  son  of  Modron,  out  of  prison, 
another  very  lucky  thing  happened.  One  of 
Arthur's  knights  saved  a  hill  of  ants  from  being 
burned,  and  the  ants  were  so  grateful  that  they 
said  they  would  do  something  for  him  that  no 
man  could  do.  So  they  went  and  picked  out 
of  the  ground  the  nine  bushels  of  flax-seed  that 
Yspaddaden  Penkawr  had  told  Kilhooch  he 
must  get  for  him.  The  ants  came  and  piled  up 
the  flax-seed  till  there  was  only  one  seed  miss- 
ing, and  a  lame  ant  brought  that  one  before 
night. 

"It  was  time  now  to  begin  the  hunt  of  the 
wild  boar  Toorch  Trooyth.  He  was  said  to  be 
somewhere  in  Ireland,  and  Arthur  first  sent 
Menoo,  the  man  who  could  cast  spells,  to  see 
if  he  really  had  the  razor  and  the  comb  and 


1 68        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

the  scissors  that  Yspaddaden  Penkawr  wanted 
between  his  ears.  Menoo,  it  seems,  could 
cast  spells  upon  himself  just  as  well  as  upon 
anybody  else,  so  he  changed  himself  into  a 
bird.  Then  he  found  the  den  where  Toorch 
Trooyth  lived,  and  there,  sure  enough,  he  saw 
the  razor  and  the  comb  and  the  scissors  be- 
tween his  ears.  Menoo  hovered  over  him  and 
tried  to  snatch  away  one  of  them,  but  he  only 
got  one  of  the  long,  stiff  bristles,  and  then  the 
boar  got  up  angrily  and  shook  himself,  and 
Menoo  flew  away  and  went  back  to  tell  Arthur. 

"  Then  Arthur  called  all  his  warriors  to- 
gether and  they  crossed  over  to  Ireland  to 
hunt  Toorch  Trooyth.  It  may  have  been  a 
great  punishment  for  this  wicked  king  to  turn 
him  into  a  wild  boar,  but  it  does  not  seem  to 
have  made  him  any  less  wicked  or  any  less 
dangerous,  for  the  first  day  that  they  hunted 
him,  the  story  says  that  he  laid  waste  the  fifth 
part  of  Ireland.  They  hunted  him  and  fought 
with  him  there  for  eleven  days  altogether,  and 
then  he  ran  into  the  sea  and  started  to  swim 
across  the  channel  toward  England.  And  he 
swam  straight  toward  the  mouth  of  this  same 
river  Severn,  and  came  to  land  somewhere  in 
Devonshire,  where  we  are  going  as  fast  as  we 
can  get  there. 

"  Now  it  would  do  no  good  for  me  to  tell 
you,  even  if  I  could  remember,  all  the  places 


On  the   Wrong  Side  of  the  Severn    169 

where  Toorcb  Trooyth  led  Arthur  and  his 
men  in  their  hunt.  It  lasted  for  many  days* 
and  the  wild  boar  rushed  through  the  coun- 
try, trampling  down  and  destroying  the  crops, 
killing  cattle  and  dogs  and  killing  some  of  Ar- 
thur's men  too.  And  at  last  Arthur  resolved 
that  he  would  surround  him  with  as  many  of 
his  knights  as  he  could  and  force  him  into  the 
Severn.  So  they  came  up  with  him  and 
pressed  upon  him  all  around,  and  forced  him 
into  the  river,  and  while  he  was  there  Mabon, 
the  son  of  Modron,  who  was  on  one  side  of 
him,  snatched  the  razor  from  between  his  ears, 
and  a  knight  of  Arthur's,  on  the  other  side, 
seized  the  scissors.  But  before  they  could  get 
the  comb  the  boar  broke  away  from  them  and 
grot  back  to  the  land. 

"Then  he  ran  and  none  of  them  could  over- 
take him  again  till  he  came  into  Cornwall 
There  they  did  overtake  him,  but  just  here  the 
story-teller  gives  it  up  and  does  not  try  to  tell 
us  what  happened  Tn  the  fight.  But  he  does 
tell  us  that  all  that  had  gone  before  was  mere 
play  compared  with  it.  But  they  got  the 
comb  and  then  they  drove  the  boar  into  the 
sea,  and  he  swam  away,  and  after  that  nobody 
ever  knew  what  became  of  him. 

"  Then  Kilhooch  took  the  razor  and  the  scis- 
sors and  the  comb  to  Yspaddaden  Penkawr,  and 
he  could  not  deny  that  Kilhooch  had  done 


170         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

everything  that  he  had  told  him  to  do,  so  he 
had  to  give  him  his  daughter  Olwen  for  his 
wife.  And  on  the  day  when  they  were  mar- 
ried Yspaddaden  Penkawr  died,  as  it  had  been 
foretold  that  he  would,  and  nobody  was  sorry, 
because  he  had  killed  so  many  young  men  who 
had  come  to  marry  his  daughter  that  every- 
body thought  it  was  time  for  him  to  die.  And 
yet  I  am  afraid  that  Kilhooch  was  never  truly 
sorry  for  all  the  young  men  who  had  been 
killed  because  they  could  not  do  the  things 
that  Yspaddaden  Penkawr  asked  of  them.  And 
they  might  have  done  them,  too,  just  as  well  as 
he,  if  they  had  had  King  Arthur  to  help  them, 
like  him." 

The  water  all  around  us  had  grown  wonder- 
fully smooth  and  the  boat  was  going  along 
quietly  and  right  side  up.  We  stood  up  to 
look  around  and  see  what  had  made  the 
change.  "  How  narrow  the  river  is  here !  " 
Helen  said. 

"  Yes,"  I  said,  "  we  must  be  off  the  Severn 
now  and  on  the  Avon  ;  not  the  Stratford  Avon, 
but  the  Bristol  Avon." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  PATHS  THAT  ENID  RODE 

I  AM  glad  that  mj  fathers  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago  came  from  Devonshire.  If 
I  could  have  chosen  the  place  for  them  to  come 
from,  I  could  not  have  found  a  better  one.  It 
does  not  matter  just  where  we  went  on  our 
way  through  Devon.  One  part  of  it  is  as  beau- 
tiful as  another.  Everywhere  you  see  the  same 
gentle  slopes  of  hillsides,  covered  with  the 
same  rich,  green  depth  of  velvet  grass.  Every- 
where the  same  contented-looking  sheep  are 
feeding  in  the  sunny  pastures  or  lying  sleepily 
in  the  shade.  On  the  hills  and  in  the  fields  of 
grain  are  scattered  the  same  red  and  yellow 
flowers.  Along  all  the  roads  are  the  same 
green  hedges,  higher  than  your  head  on  both 
sides,  often,  as  you  walk,  as  high  as  your  head 
even,  sometimes,  when  you  ride.  All  these 
things  are  the  same  in  their  sweet  and  peaceful 
loveliness,  and  yet  they  are  all  different,  always 


172         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

fresh,  always  new.  You  never  get  tired  of 
these  scenes.  The  more  you  see  of  them  the 
more  you  feel  rested  and  refreshed  and  grate- 
ful. 

And  then  they  feed  you  so  well  in  Devon- 
shire. For  those  sheep  are  just  as  good  to  eat 
as  they  are  to  look  at,  and  there  are  other 
things  equally  good  to  eat  that  do  not  show  so 
much  in  the  landscape.  But  the  cows  help  the 
landscape,  and  the  table  too,  because  you  owe 
all  your  clotted  cream  to  them.  When  you 
are  in  Devonshire  you  get  clotted  cream  with 
your  orange  marmalade  or  your  strawberry 
jam,  or  whatever  you  have  for  breakfast ;  you 
get  it  again  with  your  gooseberry  tart  for 
luncheon,  and  again  with  whatever  comes  at 
the  end  of  your  dinner.  If  you  want  to  eat  it 
on  your  bread  at  any  time  of  the  day,  when 
you  have  bread,  you  can.  In  Devonshire  they 
would  no  more  think  of  asking  you  to  eat  a 
meal  without  clotted  cream  than  without  a 
knife  and  fork. 

And  while  we  were  in  Devonshire — I  don't 
remember  just  where,  but  somewhere  and 
somehow — I  happened  to  say  :  "  This  Devon 
was  Geraint's  country.  His  father,  Erbin,  was 
the  ruler  of  it,  under  King  Arthur.  But  when 
Geraint  had  been  at  the  court  of  Arthur  for 
some  three  years,  Erbin  began  to  feel  that  he 
was  getting  too  old  to  keep  such  order  and 


The  Paths  that  Enid  Rode        173 

peace  as  Arthur  wanted  everywhere.  The 
great  lords  all  about  him  knew  that  he  was  get- 
ting  old  too,  and  they  thought  that  he  would 
soon  be  too  weak  to  defend  his  lands,  and  that 
then  they  could  get  some  of  them  for  them- 
selves. So  he  sent  messengers  to  Arthur  to 
ask  him  to  let  his  son  Geraint  come  back  and 
help  him  to  defend  the  country  and  learn  to 
rule  it  after  him. 

"Arthur  was  sorry  to  lose  Geraint,  for  he 
had  come  to  be  one  of  the  best  knights  of  the 
court,  but  he  knew  that  he  was  needed  more 
in  Devon,  and  he  told  him  to  go.  So  Geraint 
and  Enid  left  Oaerleon,  and  many  of  Arthur's 
best  knights  went  with  them  to  the  Severn,  and 
crossed  over  to  the  other  side,  and  there  Erbin's 
knights  met  them.  Then  they  all  went  together 
to  Erbin's  court,  and  there  was  great  rejoicing 
over  Geraint's  arrival.  And  as  soon  as  it  was 
over  Geraint  began  to  help  his  father  in  the 
ruling  of  the  country.  And  with  a  strong  and 
vigorous  and  resolute  young  man  like  Geraint 
at  the  head  of  affairs,  one  who  could  tell  a 
troublesome  lord  what  to  do  and  then  make 
him  do  it,  things  were  soon  in  better  order 
than  they  had  been,  and  there  was  no  part  of 
Arthur's  kingdom  that  was  better  governed 
than  Devon. 

"  Then,  since  there  was  no  more  real  fight- 
ing to  do,  Geraint  began  to  fight  in  tourna- 


174        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

ments,  as  he  had  done  at  Arthur's  court,  and  to 
hunt  with  the  other  knights.  He  was  the  best 
of  them  all  in  these  things,  and  his  fame  spread 
all  about  the  country.  But  after  a  time  Ge- 
raint  began  to  get  a  little  tired  of  tipping  other 
knights  over  in  sham  fights.  It  was  not  at  all 
strange  that  he  should,  I  think.  The  wonder 
to  me  is  that  they  did  not  all  get  tired  to  death 
of  knocking  one  another  over  their  horses'  tails 
and  denting  one  another's  helmet,  and  splitting 
one  another's  shield.  And  Geraint  was  sensi- 
ble enough  to  care  more  for  his  wife  than  he 
did  for  punching  holes  in  his  friends'  armors, 
so  he  stayed  with  her  a  good  deal  and  began 
to  neglect  the  tournaments. 

"  But  a  good  many  people  have  got  into 
trouble  by  knowing  more  and  being  more 
sensible  than  the  people  around  them,  and  so 
it  was  with  Geraint.  For  the  knights  were  not 
content  with  knowing  that  Geraint  was  the 
best  of  all  of  them  ;  they  wanted  him  to  be 
proving  it  all  the  time.  They  got  to  saying 
that  he  was  losing  his  courage,  and  that  it  was 
a  shame  for  him  to  stay  at  home  with  his  wife 
instead  of  winning  more  fame  in  the  hunt  and 
the  tournament.  Now  this  was  just  the  way 
that  pretty  nearly  a  hundred  people  out  of  a 
hundred  in  those  days  would  look  at  it,  and  it 
was  just  the  way  that  Erbin  looked  at  it  when 
he  heard  this  kind  of  talk  about  the  court.  So 


The  Paths  that  Enid  Rode        175 

he  told  Enid  of  it,  and  asked  her  if  it  was  she 
who  had  made  Geraint  give  up  all  the  sports 
in  which  he  had  been  so  famous  and  lead  such 
a  lazy  life  at  home. 

"  And  Enid  looked  at  it  just  as  Erbin  did, 
and  she  said  :  '  No,  indeed,  I  would  never  keep 
him  away  from  any  honor  that  he  could  win. 
I  do  not  know  why  he  does  not  go  to  the 
tournaments  any  more,  but  I  am  as  sorry  for 
it  as  you.' 

"Now  you  know  very  good  people  are  al- 
ways getting  it  into  their  heads  that  they  have 
done  something  dreadfully  wrong,  and  it  was 
just  so  with  Enid.  The  more  she  thought 
about  it  the  more  she  was  afraid  that  it  was  her 
fault  after  all.  She  liked  to  have  Geraint  with 
her,  of  course,  and  so  she  feared  that  she  had 
kept  him  with  her  when  he  ought  to  have  been 
with  the  other  knights.  And  one  morning  Enid 
sat  watching  by  Geraint  while  he  slept.  She 
was  gazing  at  him  and  thinking  how  beautiful 
and  strong  he  was.  Then  she  thought  so  hard 
that  she  thought  out  loud,  and  some  tears  came 
into  her  eyes,  and  one  of  them  dropped  on  his 
face,  and  she  said  :  '  Have  I  been  doing  so  very 
wrong,  and  is  it  my  fault  that  all  his  strength 
is  wasted  and  that  they  do  not  call  him  the 
bravest  of  all  the  knights  any  more?' 

"  And  the  tear  that  fell  on  his  face  awakened 
him,  and  he  heard  a  part  of  what  she  said.  And 


176         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

what  he  heard  and  the  tears  that  he  saw  made 
him  think  one  of  the  most  insane  things  that 
such  a  good,  sensible  fellow  as  he  could  possi- 
bly think.  I  am  afraid  I  cannot  tell  you  ex- 
actly what  it  was,  because  I  don't  think  either 
of  us  is  insane  enough  to  understand  it.  But, 
as  nearly  as  I  can  tell  you  what  he  thought,  it 
was  like  this  :  seeing  the  tears  made  him  think 
that  Enid  was  unhappy  ;  then  he  concluded 
that  she  must  be  tired  of  staying  with  him  at 
his  lonely  little  court  of  Devon,  away  from  the 
great  court  of  Arthur;  and  hearing  her  say 
something  about  doing  wrong  made  him  think 
that  she  had  done  something  very  dreadfully 
wrong,  and  as  she  was  crying  over  him,  he 
thought  that  the  whole  wrong  and  unhappiness 
must  be  about  something  that  concerned  him. 
Now  did  you  ever  hear  of  anything  more  ab- 
surd? If  he  had  been  fully  awake  I  don't 
believe  that  he  would  ever  have  thought  of 
any  such  nonsense.  But  as  it  was  these  mad 
notions  got  into  his  head  while  he  was  only 
half  awake.  Then  they  stayed  there,  and  it 
was  a  long  time  before  he  got  fully  waked  up, 
as  you  will  see  presently. 

"  But  just  now,  being  only  half  awake,  as  I 
prefer  to  believe,  he  ordered  his  horse  and  he 
ordered  Enid's  horse,  and  he  put  on  his  armor. 
Then  he  said  to  Enid  :  '  Put  on  your  worst  rid- 
ing-dress and  come  and  ride  with  me,  and  you 


T/u  Paths  that  Enid  Rode        177 

shall  not  come  back  here  till  you  see  whether 
I  am  as  weak  and  as  cowardly  as  you  think.' 

"  I  don't  wonder  that  poor  Enid  was  sur- 
prised, and  that  she  answered :  •  I  do  not  know 
what  you  mean  or  why  you  ask  me  to  do  this.' 

"  •  It  is  not  time  for  you  to  know  yet,'  Ge- 
raint  said. 

"And  when  they  were  on  their  horses  he 
said:  'Ride  forward  and  keep  a  long  way 
ahead  of  me.  Do  not  turn  back  and  do  not 
speak  to  me  unless  I  speak  to  you  first.' 

"And  so  they  rode  away.  It  was  a  different 
sort  of  ride  from  that  one  they  took  side  by 
side  on  that  day  when  they  came  toward  Caer- 
leon,  and  the  watchers  on  the  rampart  saw  them 
far  off,  and  Queen  Guinevere  came  down  to 
welcome  them,  and  King  Arthur  waited  to 
meet  them.  Now  Enid  was  sad  and  perplexed 
with  wondering  what  it  all  meant.  She  could 
not  think  where  they  were  going,  or  why,  and 
she  could  not  understand  why  Geraint  would 
not  let  her  speak  to  him.  And  Geraint  was 
more  troubled  than  she,  for  he  himself,  I  be- 
lieve, did  not  know  just  why  he  was  doing  this 
silly  thing.  He  must  have  known  that  his  own 
thoughts  were  all  wrong,  even  though  he  was 
only  half  awake. 

"  They  must  have  ridden,  I  think,  in  some  of 
the  very  places  where  we  have  been.  They 
did  not  look  the  same  then,  perhaps,  but  the 


178         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

story  says  that  in  one  place  the  road  was  be- 
tween  two  hedges.  That  was  like  what  we 
have  seen,  surely  ;  yet  in  most  places  I  think 
that  the  ways  were  rougher  then  and  that  , 
there  were  more  woods.  The  woods  were 
dangerous,  too,  because  there  were  a  good 
many  thieves  in  them,  in  spite  of  all  that  King 
Arthur  and  Geraint  had  done  to  drive  them 
out. 

"  And  as  Enid  rode  along  so  far  ahead,  she 
saw  four  armed  horsemen  come  out  of  the 
woods  near  her.  And  she  heard  one  of  them 
say  :  '  Here  is  a  chance  to  get  two  horses  and 
an  armor ;  that  glum-looking  knight  there  can 
do  nothing  against  us.' 

"Then  Enid  tried  to  think  what  she  ought 
to  do.  Geraint  Had.  told  her  not  to  speak  to 
him,  yet  she  feared  that  if  she  did  not  warn 
him  the  four  men  would  set  upon  him  all  at 
once  and  kill  him.  Of  course  she  did  the  only 
sensible  thing  that  anybody  could  do.  She 
turned  back  and  warned  him.  And  what  do 
you  think  he  said  ?  '  I  told  you,'  he  said,  '  not 
to  speak  to  me.  No  doubt  you  would  like  to 
see  these  men  kill  me,  but  I  am  not  afraid  of 
them.'  No.w  do  you  believe,  Helen,  that  Ge- 
raint could -ever  have  said  that  if  he  had  been 
more  than  half  awake  ? 

"  But  he  was  awake  enough  to  run  his  spear 
through  the  fii*st'  of  the  four  men  who  came 


Tke  Paths  that  Enid  Rode        179 

against  him.  And  then  he  served  each  of  the 
other  three  in  the  same  way  in  his  torn.  Then 
he  took  off  the  armors  of  the  four  men  and 
bound  them  on  the  backs  of  the  four  horses. 
And  he  tied  the  bridles  of  the  horses  together 
and  mounted  his  own  horse  again  and  said  to 
Enid :  '  Drive  these  horses  before  you  and 
keep  far  ahead  of  me,  and  do  not  dare  to  speak 
to  me  again  unless  I  speak  to  you  first.' 

"  So  they  rode  on  again,  but  Enid  did  not 
have  so  much  time  now  to  wonder  what  it  all 
meant,  because  she  had  to  attend  to  driving 
the  horses.  And  by  and  by  they  came  out  of 
the  wood  and  began  crossing  a  plain.  In  the 
middle  of  it  was  a  clump  of  trees,  and  out  of 
this  came  three  men,  armed  and  on  horseback. 
As  Enid  came  near  them  she  heard  one  of  them 
say :  •  This  is  lucky ;  here  are  four  good  horses 
and  four  good  armors  and  that  knight  there 
with  the  hangdog  look  cannot  prevent  our  tak- 
ing them.' 

"  Then  Enid  thought,  just  as  she  had  thought 
before,  of  what  she  ought  to  do,  and  she  did 
just  what  she  had  done  before  and  warned  Ge- 
raint.  And  he,  being  still,  as  I  believe,  only 
half  awake,  was  angry  with  her  again  for  speak- 
ing. Yet  he  charged  against  the  men  and  over- 
threw them  all,  as  he  had  done  before.  And 
then,  just  as  he  had  done  before,  he  took  the 
armors  and  bound  them  on  the  backs  of  the 


180        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

horses  and  fastened  the  bridles  together  and 
told  Enid  to  drive  the  horses  before  her  with 
the  others. 

"  Then  on  they  went  across  the  plain  till  they 
came  near  another  wood.  And  this  time  five 
horsemen  came  out  against  them.  And  just 
the  same  things  happened  that  had  happened 
twice  before.  Enid  warned  Geraint  and  he 
was  angry  with  her  for  speaking,  yet  he  over- 
threw the  men.  And  this  time  Enid  had  five 
more  horses  to  drive  before  her,  so  that  there 
were  twelve  in  all." 

Just  here  Helen,  who  had  been  looking  doubt- 
ful for  some  time,  refused  to  believe  any  more. 
"  How  could  she  drive  twelve  horses,"  she 
asked,  "  without  any  reins  or  anything  at  all  to 
drive  them  with  ?  " 

"  It  is  not  very  easy  to  understand,"  I  said, 
"but  we  must  remember  that  they  had  good 
horses  in  those  days  and  they  were  well  trained. 
They  must  have  been,  or  they  would  not  have 
done  their  parts  in  those  jousts  and  tourna- 
ments. The  horses  often  got  knocked  down, 
as  well  as  the  men,  and  the  horses  must  have 
known  it.  So  it  must  have  taken  good  train- 
ing to  make  one  of  them  charge  straight 
against  another  with  a  knight  on  his  back, 
knowing  that  there  was  going  to  be  a  dreadful 
shock  and  a  crash,  and  that  as  likely  as  not  he 
and  his  rider  were  both  going  to  be  thrown  over 


The  Paths  that  Enid  Rode        181 

backward.  And  it  is  said  that  those  horses 
used  to  be  trained  so  that  they  would  gallop 
straight  against  a  stone  wall,  if  their  riders 
told  them  to  do  it.  So  you  see  horses  in  those 
days  were  taught  to  go  just  where  they  were 
told  to  go.  No  doubt  Enid  did  have  hard 
work  to  drive  these  twelve,  and  the  story  says 
that  she  did,  but  it  was  not  so  hard  as  you 
might  think.  If  they  had  been  as  unreasonable 
as  Geraint  was,  I  am  sure  she  could  not  have 
done  anything  with  them  at  all.  But  horses 
are  almost  always  more  reasonable  than  men. 

"  Well,  riding  in  this  way,  they  came  into  the 
wood,  and  before  they  were  through  the  wood 
it  was  night.  So  they  turned  out  of  the  road 
and  tied  their  horses  to  trees  and  slept.  And 
very  early  in  the  morning  they  awoke  and 
mounted  and  started  again  on  their  way.  Soon 
they  were  out  of  the  wood  and  in  an  open 
country.  There  was  a  great  meadow,  with 
mowers,  on  one  side,  and  before  them  they  saw 
a  town.  Then  they  met  a  boy  who  carried  a 
basket  and  a  large  pitcher.  '  Whence  do  you 
come  ?  '  said  Geraint  to  the  boy. 

" '  From  the  town  yonder,'  the  boy  answered ; 
'  and  whence  are  you  ?  ' 

" '  We  have  just  come  through  the  wood,' 
answered  Geraint. 

" '  But  you  cannot  have  come  through  the 
wood  this  morning,'  said  the  boy. 


1 82         The   Court  of  King  Arthur 

" '  No,'  said  Geraint ;  '  we  were  in  the  wood 
all  night.' 

" '  Then  you  have  had  nothing  to  eat  this 
morning,'  said  the  boy  ;  *  will  you  take  what  I 
have  here  ?  It  is  the  breakfast  for  the  mowers, 
bread  and  meat  and  wine,  but  I  can  bring  more 
for  them.' 

"  Then  Geraint  thanked  the  boy  and  got  off  his 
horse.  And  the  boy  helped  Enid  off  her  horse, 
and  then  he  served  them  while  they  ate.  They 
must  have  been  really  hungry,  for,  as  far  as  the 
story  shows,  they  had  eaten  nothing  that  morn- 
ing or  the  day  before.  '  And  now,'  said  the  boy, 
'  I  must  go  and  get  something  for  the  mowers.' 

"  '  As  you  go  to  the  town,'  said  Geraint,  '  find 
the  best  lodging  for  me  that  you  can,  and  take 
any  one  of  these  horses  that  you  like  and  the 
armor  on  his  back,  to  pay  you  for  your  trouble.' 

"  So  the  boy  went  to  the  town  and  found  the 
best  lodging  he  could.  But  it  did  not  seem  to 
him  that  it  was  good  enough  for  such  a  great 
lord  as  Geraint  must  be,  so  he  went  to  the 
palace  of  the  Earl,  who  was  the  lord  of  the 
place,  and  asked  him  what  he  should  do.  '  Tell 
the  knight,'  said  the  Earl,  '  to  come  here  to  my 
palace,  and  I  shall  be  glad  to  welcome  him.' 

"  But  when  the  boy  brought  the  message  to 
Geraint,  he  would  not  go  to  the  Earl's  palace, 
but  only  to  the  lodgings  that  the  boy  had  found 
for  him.  And  when  they  were  there  Geraint 


The  Paths  that  Enid  Rode        183 

told  Enid  to  stay  on  one  side  of  the  room  and 
not  to  cross  to  the  other  side,  where  he  was. 
You  see  he  had  waked  up  this  morning  only 
about  as  far  as  he  did  yesterday  morning. 

"  Then  the  Earl  sent  word  to  Geraint  that 
he  would  come  to  visit  him,  and  in  the  even- 
ing he  came.  And  the  Earl  asked  Geraint  why 
he  was  making  this  journey.  '  To  seek  advent- 
ures,* said  Geraint, '  and  to  go  where  I  please.' 

"  And  when  the  Earl  saw  how  Enid  stayed 
on  the  other  side  of  the  room,  all  alone,  he 
could  not  understand  it,  any  more  than  you 
and  I  do,  or  any  more  than  Enid  and  Geraint 
themselves  did.  But  the  Earl  was  fully  awake 
and  he  saw  how  absurd  it  looked  better  than 
Geraint.  And  since  she  kept  so  far  away  from 
Geraint  and  neither  of  them  spoke  to  the  other, 
the  Earl  thought  that  she  must  be  going  with 
him  for  some  reason  against  her  wilL  So  the 
Earl  said  to  Geraint:  'May  I  speak  to  the 
maiden  yonder,  for  I  see  she  is  not  with  you  ?  * 

-  •  Speak  to  her,  if  you  like,'  said  Geraint. 

"  Then  the  Earl  crossed  the  room  to  where 
Enid  was  and  said  to  her :  '  It  must  be  unpleas- 
ant to  yon  to  ride  through  the  country  with 
this  man.  You  have  no  house  and  yon  must 
sleep  in  such  places  as  you  can  find.  You  have 
no  servants  and  you  must  grow  weary  of  rid- 
ing all  day,  with  no  company  but  him.  My 
men  are  here  with  me.  If  you  say  the  word 


184        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

we  can  kill  him  in  an  instant,  and  then  I  will 
marry  you  and  you  shall  come  to  my  palace 
and  you  shall  have  everything  that  you  want 
as  long  as  you  live.' 

"  But  Enid  answered  :  '  No  ;  I  would  rather 
be  on  the  roads  and  in  the  woods  with  that 
man  than  in  your  palace  with  you.' 

" '  Take  care,  then,'  said  the  Earl ;  '  you  are 
both  here  in  my  town,  and  here  are  my  men. 
If  I  like  I  can  kill  him  without  your  leave,  and 
then  I  can  make  you  marry  me.' 

"  Then  Enid  was  afraid  that  he  would  do  as 
he  said,  so  she  answered  him  :  '  Do  not  touch 
him  yet ;  go  away  now,  but  come  back  to-mor- 
row and  kill  him,  if  you  will,  and  take  me  away, 
as  if  it  were  by  force.' 

"  So  the  Earl  went  away  and  took  all  his 
men  with  him.  And  after  awhile  Geraint  lay 
down  and  went  to  sleep.  But  Enid  kept  awake 
and  watched.  And  by  and  by  she  took  all 
Geraint's  armor  and  placed  it  together,  so  that 
it  should  be  ready  for  him  to  put  on.  Then 
she  watched  again  till  midnight.  And  at  mid- 
night she  went  to  Geraint  and  spoke  to  him 
and  woke  him  and  told  him  all  that  the  Earl 
had  said.  And  again  he  was  angry  with  her 
for  speaking  to  him,  but  he  called  the  man  of 
the  house  and  said  to  him :  '  Take  the  eleven 
horses  and  the  eleven  suits  of  armor  for  your 
pay,  and  show  us  the  way  out  of  the  town.' 


The  Paths  that  Enid  Rode        185 

"  So  they  mounted  their  horses  again  and  the 
man  showed  them  the  way  and  they  left  the 
town.  And  they  rode  on  through  the  dark 
woods  and  between  the  dark  fields  till  morn- 
ing. And  Enid  still  rode  far  ahead,  as  she  had 
done  on  the  first  day.  And  when  it  began  to 
grow  light  they  saw  a  wide  valley  before  them, 
and  a  river,  with  a  bridge  across  it,  and  a  town 
beyond.  Soon  they  met  a  knight,  and  Geraint 
asked  him  whose  town  it  was  before  him.  *  It 
belongs,'  said  the  knight,  •  to  the  Little  King.' 

"  You  know  I  have  told  you  something  about 
some  little  kings  before.  I  called  them  little 
kings  because  they  amounted  to  so  little.  This 
one  was  called  the  Little  King  because  his 
body  was  so  little. 

"  Geraint  kept  on  his  way  and  soon  he  met 
another  knight.  His  horse  was  big,  but  Geraint 
thought  that  the  knight  was  the  smallest  man 
he  had  ever  seen  on  a  horse.  •  What  are  you 
doing  here,'  the  knight  cried  out  to  Geraint, 
•and  why  do  you  come  into  a  place  that  be- 
longs to  me?" 

"  •  I  did  not  know  that  this  road  was  forbid- 
den," said  Geraint.  •  Who  are  you,  and  why 
should  I  not  come  here  ? ' 

Ul  I  am  the  Little  King,'  the  other  answered, 
•  and  I  let  no  one  pass  here  unless  he  fights 
with  me," 

"  It  was  not  at  all  uncommon  in  those  days, 


1 86         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

when  a  knight  could  not  possibly  find  any- 
thing else  to  fight  about,  for  him  to  take  up 
his  stand  somewhere  and  declare  that  no  other 
knight  should  pass  without  fighting  him.  Wan- 
dering knights  always  expected  to  find  such 
fixed  knights  as  these,  now  and  then,  and  they 
were  always  ready  for  them.  So  Geraint  said 
no  more,  but  closed  his  helmet  and  put  his 
spear  in  rest.  Then  they  fought  for  a  long 
time,  first  on  horseback  and  then  on  foot.  And 
Geraint  thought  that  he  had  never  had  a 
harder  fight,  not  even  with  Edyrn,  the  son  of 
Nudd.  For  the  Little  King  was  so  small  that 
it  was  hard  to  hit  him,  but  he  struck  back  as 
often  and  as  strongly  as  any  knight.  Yet  at 
last  Geraint  drove  his  sword  out  of  his  hand 
and  brought  him  to  the  ground,  and  the  Little 
King  begged  him  to  spare  his  life.  *  I  will  give 
you  your  life,'  Geraint  answered,  '  if  you  will 
promise  never  to  fight  against  me  again,  but 
to  be  ready  always  to  come  and  fight  for  me, 
if  you  hear  that  I  am  in  trouble.' 

"  And  the  Little  King  promised,  and  Geraint 
and  Enid  rode  on  their  way.  And  still  Enid 
rode  ahead  and  wondered  what  this  long, 
dreadful  journey  was  for  and  why  she  might 
not  ask.  And  as  they  came  to  another  wood 
they  heard  a  sound  of  someone  crying,  and 
Geraint  said :  '  Wait  here  till  I  see  what  is  the 
matter.' 


The  Paths  that  Enid  Rode        187 

"And  when  he  left  the  road  and  went  into 
the  wood  he  found  a  woman  sitting  beside  a 
knight  who  lay  dead  upon  the  ground.  And 
when  Geraint  asked  her  what  had  happened, 
she  told  him  that  the  knight  was  her  hus- 
band and  that  three  giants  had  killed  him. 
*  And  which  waj  did  they  go  ? "  Geraint 
asked. 

"'They  went  yonder,'  said  the  woman,  'by 
the  high  road ;  bat  do  not  try  to  follow  them, 
or  they  will  kill  you  as  they  killed  my  husband." 

"Then  Geraint  went  back  to  Enid  and  told 
her  to  go  to  the  woman  and  to  stay  with  her, 
while  he  followed  the  giants.  And  Enid  went, 
and  she  forgot  all  her  other  sadness  and  her 
wonder  about  the  journey  that  she  was  on, 
in  her  fear  that  Geraint  would  not  come 
back. 

M  But  Geraint  followed  the  giants.  In  a  hi. 
tie  while  he  came  upon  one  of  them  and  thrust 
him  through  with  his  spear,  so  that  he  fell 
down  dead.  And  so  he  served  the  second, 
when  he  came  up  with  him,  but  the  third 
struck  him  with  a  dub  that  he  carried  and 
split  his  shield  and  crushed  his  shoulder.  Yet 
Geraint  killed  him,  too,  and  then  turned  back 
toward  the  place  where  he  had  left  Enid.  The 
pain  in  his  shoulder  was  so  great  that  he  could 
scarcely  bear  it  till  he  came  where  Enid  and 
the  other  woman  were,  and  when  he  did  reach 


1 88         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

the  spot  he  fell  down  off  his  horse  in  a 
swoon. 

"Just  then  the  Earl  who  was  lord  of  that 
part  of  the  country  was  passing  with  some  of 
his  men,  and  the  women  called  to  them  for 
help.  And  the  Earl  came  and  ordered  a  few 
of  his  men  to  bury  the  dead  knight,  but  he  did 
not  know  whether  Geraint  was  dead  or  not,  so 
he  had  him  carried  to  his  castle,  and  he  took 
the  two  women  there  too.  They  put  Geraint 
on  a  couch  in  the  hall,  but  they  did  no  more 
for  him,  for  the  table  was  there,  spread  with 
food  and  wine,  and  they  cared  more  about 
that. 

"  They  were  a  rough  crew,  the  Earl  and  his 
men,  and  they  shouted  and  laughed  and  ate 
and  drank,  as  if  there  had  been  no  one  near 
who  felt  any  sorrow.  And  as  soon  as  Enid 
came  into  the  hall  the  Earl  dragged  her  to 
the  table  and  told  her  to  eat  too.  '  I  cannot 
eat,'  she  answered,  '  and  I  will  never  eat 
till  that  man  who  lies  there  shall  rise  and  eat 
too.' 

"'  Drink,  then,'  said  the  Earl,  and  he  poured 
some  wine  for  her. 

"  '  I  will  not  drink/  she  answered,  '  till  he 
rises  and  drinks,  too.' 

"  *  Do  not  be  so  sad  and  silly,'  said  the  Earl, 
'  about  one  man.  You  were  his  wife,  were 
you  ?  Well,  then,  he  is  dead,  and  that  is  the 


The  Paths  that  Enid  Rode        189 

end  of  him.  You  shall  stay  with  me  now  and 
be  my  wife.  Drink  now.' 

"  '  I  shall  always  be  sad,'  said  Enid,  '  if  he  is 
dead,  and  I  cannot  eat  or  drink.' 

" '  I  have  tried  to  be  gentle  with  you,'  the 
Earl  cried  out, '  and  it  is  of  no  use ;  now  I 
must  be  rough  with  you  ;  you  shall  eat  when  I 
tell  you  and  drink  when  I  tell  you ! '  and  then 
he  struck  her  on  the  face. 

"  Then  Enid  gave  a  great  cry.  It  was  not 
so  much  because  she  was  hurt,  but  because  she 
thought  that  Geraint  must  be  really  dead. 
For  she  thought  that  if  he  had  been  alive  the 
Earl  would  not  have  dared  to  strike  her.  Now 
I  don't  know  whether  Geraint  had  heard  any- 
thing of  what  the  Earl  and  Enid  had  said.  I 
hope  so,  for  it  was  just  what  he  ought  to  hear. 
But  he  surely  heard  her  cry  and  he  waked  up 
then.  He  waked  up  fully,  too,  not  half.  And 
he  either  heard  or  saw  exactly  how  things 
were,  and  he  seized  his  sword,  which  had  been 
left  near  him,  and  rushed  upon  the  Earl  and 
struck  him  dead  with  one  blow.  And  all  the 
rest  of  the  men  in  the  hall  were  frightened  and 
ran  away,  for  they  thought  that  a  dead  man 
had  risen  up  to  punish  them. 

"  And  Geraint,  as  I  said,  was  all  awake  now. 
He  looked  at  Enid  and  saw  and  felt  how  faith- 
ful and  good  she  was,  how  little  she  could  do 
any  wrong,  and  how  much  she  loved  him  And 


190        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

he  felt  ashamed  of  himself  for  being  so  foolish 
and  so  cruel.  He  did  not  say  a  word,  but  he 
took  her  hand  and  led  her  out  of  the  hall.  He 
found  their  horses  and  they  mounted  and  rode 
away,  and  now  they  ride  side  by  side. 

"  And  soon  they  saw  spears  over  the  hedges 
that  hid  the  road,  where  it  curved,  and  then 
they  heard  horses  and  knew  that  armed  men 
were  coming.  They  waited,  and  in  a  moment 
they  saw  many  men  on  horseback  and  a  knight 
at  the  head  of  them.  When  he  came  a  little 
nearer  they  knew  him,  and  it  was  the  Little 
King.  '  Is  it  Geraint  ? '  he  cried.  '  I  heard 
that  you  were  in  trouble,  and  I  was  coming  to 
help  you.' 

"  Then,  when  the  Little  King  found  that 
Geraint  was  wounded,  he  made  him  and  Enid 
come  to  the  castle  of  a  baron  near  by  who  was 
his  friend.  There  they  all  stayed  till  Geraint 
was  well,  and  then  he  and  Enid  went  home,  and 
the  Little  King  went  with  them.  And  Geraint 
went  back  to  the  tournaments  and  the  hunts, 
and  as  long  as  he  lived  there  were  few  knights 
so  good  or  so  famous  as  he.  But  there  was 
something  better  about  Geraint  than  that.  For 
he  had  learned  how  foolish  it  was,  when  he 
might  wake  up  and  find  that  everything  was 
right,  to  stay  half-asleep  and  dream  that  every- 
thing was  wrong.  And  Enid  was  so  happy  to 
see  him  as  he  used  to  be  that  she  never  asked 


The  Paths  that  Enid  Rode        191 

him  why  he  made  her  take  that  long,  weary 
ride  and  keep  ahead  of  him  and  never  speak  to 
him.  And  Geraint  was  so  happy,  too,  and  he 
knew  so  well  that  Enid  could  do  no  wrong, 
that  he  never  asked  her  what  she  had  said  or 
what  she  had  meant  or  why  she  was  so  sad  on 
that  morning  when  her  tears  fell  and  half- 
awoke  him." 


CHAPTER  IX 

A   LITTLE    JOURNEY   IN   CORNWALL 

IT  is  not  easy  to  remember  just  where  you 
have  been  in  Cornwall.  It  does  not  matter 
where  we  started,  and  I  could  not  possibly  tell 
you  what  way  we  went  on  the  day  that  I  mean 
to  tell  you  what  I  can  about.  My  memory  is 
all  confused.  I  do  know  that  I  asked  the  man 
who  sold  us  our  railway  tickets  whether  we 
should  have  to  change  anywhere.  He  said 
that  we  must  change  at  Such-a-place.  I  don't 
dare  to  say  how  many  times  it  turned  out  that 
we  had  to  change  before  we  got  to  Such-a- 
place,  or  how  many  times  after  we  left  it.  I 
will  not  tell  you  a  lie,  and  if  I  told  you  the  truth 
you  would  not  believe  me. 

But  I  remember  that  we  saw  many  of  those 
pretty  slopes  of  pastures,  such  as  we  had  seen 
in  Devon,  and  I  remember  that  we  saw  some- 
thing else  that  was  not  so  pretty.  This  was  a 
tall,  narrow,  dingy  house,  like  a  house  in  a  toy 


A  Little  Journey  in  Cornwall     193 

Tillage,  and  a  tall  chimney.  We  saw  these 
over  and  over  again,  and  somebody  told  us  that 
wherever  we  saw  them  there  was  a  mine. 
There  were  mines  in  Cornwall  hundreds  of 
years  before  King  Arthur's  time.  The  Phoeni- 
cians knew  of  them  long  before  the  Romans 
came.  And  the  Romans  knew  how  rich  they 
were,  and  that  was  one  reason  why  they  liked 
England.  Now  they  are  rather  neglected  and 
many  of  them  are  not  worked  at  all. 

"  I  don't  know  at  all  where  we  are,"  I  said, 
as  we  got  into  a  new  train,  after  one  of  our 
many  changes,  "  but  if  we  have  not  passed  it  I 
think  that  there  is  a  strange  little  lake  not  far 
from  here.  We  shall  not  see  it  to-day,  for  I 
think  there  is  no  railway  very  near  it.  It  is  a 
lake  that  has  wonderful  stories  about  it. 

"  It  happened  once  that  Arthur  had  left  the 
court  and  had  gone  out  alone  to  fight  with  a 
knight  who  had  taken  his  place  at  a  certain 
well  and  made  every  other  knight  who  passed 
fight  with  him.  You  know  I  told  you  that 
they  sometimes  did  that.  In  the  fight  Arthur's 
sword  had  been  broken.  It  was  not  the  sword 
that  he  drew  out  of  the  stone  to  prove  himself 
the  true  King.  That  one  he  had  given  to  Ga- 
wain,  if  I  remember  rightly. 

"Then  Merlin  met  him,  and  when  Merlin 
saw  that  he  had  no  sword  he  said  to  him :  '  My 
lord,  I  know  where  there  is  a  sword  near  here 


194         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

that  you  may  have,  if  you  will  come  and  take 
it.' 

"  So  Arthur  followed  Merlin.  He  led  him  a 
little  way  to  the  foot  of  a  hill  and  then  up  the 
hill.  It  was  a  steep  place  to  climb,  and  when 
Arthur  came  to  what  he  thought  was  the  top, 
there  was  as  much  more  of  the  hill  still  before 
him.  Higher  and  higher  he  went,  till  he  saw 
the  very  crest  of  the  hill  just  ahead  and  noth- 
ing beyond  it  but  the  sky.  He  could  not  guess 
where  Merlin  was  leading  him,  but  just  as  he 
reached  the  highest  place  and  thought  that 
there  would  be  a  gentle  slope  for  him  to  go 
down  on  the  other  side,  he  stood  still  in  won- 
der. For  there  before  him  was  no  slope  of  a 
hillside,  but  a  broad  lake.  He  stood  upon  the 
very  edge  of  it  when  he  saw  it  first,  and  he 
heard  the  little  waves  plashing  on  the  shore  at 
his  very  feet. 

"  It  was  strange  enough  to  find  a  lake  like 
this  on  the  very  top  of  a  hill,  but  about  this 
one  there  were  yet  stranger  things.  Some  peo- 
ple said  that  there  were  fairies  who  lived  in 
this  lake,  and  some  said  that  there  were  evil 
spirits.  There  are  people  who  say  so  still. 
Arthur  did  not  know  of  this,  yet  he  might 
have  guessed  it  for  himself.  No  one  could 
look  out  upon  this  water,  as  he  did,  and  not 
feel  that  it  was  something  wonderful.  He 
could  not  see  the  other  side  or  tell  how  broad 


A  Little  Journey  in   Cornwall     195 

it  was,  though  it  was  clear  day  all  around. 
For  there  were  strange,  bright,  silvery  mists 
floating  upon  the  water.  They  were  moving 
and  shifting,  so  that  for  an  instant  the  King 
thought  that  he  could  catch  just  a  glimpse  of  a 
shore  beyond,  and  then  they  closed  across  it 
and  he  saw  nothing  but  the  shining,  vapory 
veil.  Now  the  bright  fog  seemed  rising  and 
growing  thinner,  till  he  looked  at  the  ripples 
of  the  water  far  from  where  he  stood,  and  now 
again  it  dropped  down  and  he  could  see  scarce- 
ly more  than  the  waves  that  came  against  the 
bank  at  his  feet  The  sun  shone  over  it  and 
through  it  all,  and  the  water,  wherever  he  could 
see  it,  gleamed  like  a  polished  armor,  and  the 
mist  dazzled  his  eyes  like  a  light  cloud  with  the 
sun  behind  it  at  noon.  He  could  see  nothing 
that  was  alive  but  Merlin,  standing  by  his  side, 
and  a  bird  like  a  sea-gull  wheeling  in  circles 
above  the  lake. 

"  Merlin  said  nothing,  but  pointed  out  upon 
the  lake,  and  the  King  looked  that  way.  Then, 
through  a  rift  in  the  mist,  he  saw  something 
rising  from  the  water.  He  could  not  make  out 
the  form  of  it  at  first,  but  in  a  moment  a  little 
puff  of  wind  blew  the  vapors  away  from  it  and 
he  could  see  it  better.  Then  he  saw  that  an 
arm  rose  out  of  the  lake.  The  arm  was  cov- 
ered with  white  silk  and  the  hand  held  a  sword 
in  a  scabbard.  The  hilt  of  the  sword  was  set 


196        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

with  big,  rich  jewels.  As  the  sunshine  touched 
them,  they  shot  out  little  rays  of  changing 
light,  red  and  purple,  and  green  and  orange, 
and,  when  the  fog  closed  around  it  a  little  more, 
the  sun  still  made  the  beautiful  hilt  glow  and 
light  up  a  little  of  the  cloud  around  it  like  a 
dim  torch. 

"  The  King  was  still  gazing  at  this  wonder 
when  Merlin  touched  him  and  pointed  again 
out  upon  the  lake  in  another  direction.  There 
Arthur  saw  another  form,  and  this  one  moved. 
It  came  nearer  to  them  and  he  saw  that  it  was 
the  form  of  a  woman  walking  on  the  water. 
Merlin  whispered  to  him  :  '  She  is  the  Lady  of 
the  Lake  ;  the  sword  is  hers,  but  she  will  give 
it  to  you  if  you  ask  it.' 

"  So,  when  she  came  near  them,  Arthur  said  : 
'  Lady,  is  that  your  sword  out  there  upon  the 
lake?' 

"  '  Yes,'  she  answered,  'it  is  mine.' 

"  *  You  see  I  have  no  sword,'  said  Arthur ; 
4  will  you  give  me  that  ? ' 

"  '  Yes,'  she  answered  again ;  '  go  into  the  boat 
there  and  row  out  and  take  it.' 

"  Then  Arthur  saw  a  little  boat  by  the  shore 
close  to  him,  though  he  had  not  seen  it  before. 
He  got  into  it,  and  so  did  Merlin.  Merlin  took 
an  oar,  but  he  scarcely  seemed  to  touch  the 
water  with  it,  and  the  boat  went  quickly  away 
from  the  shore  and  stopped  close  to  the  sword, 


A  Little  Journey  in  Cornwall    197 

Then  Arthur  took  the  sword,  and  the  arm  and 
the  hand  that  held  it  went  down  under  the 
water.  Merlin  just  dipped  his  oar  again  and 
the  boat  went  back  to  the  shore.  They  stepped 
out  of  the  boat  and  Merlin  said :  *  Draw  the 
sword  and  look  at  it.' 

"  So  Arthur  drew  the  sword  and  the  blade 
of  it  shone  like  a  mirror.  '  The  name  of  the 
sword  is  Excalibur,'  said  Merlin ;  '  but  tell  me 
now  whether  you  like  the  sword  or  the  scab- 
bard better.' 

"  *  It  is  a  beautiful  scabbard/  the  King  an- 
swered ;  •  but  surely  anybody  must  like  a  sword 
better  than  a  scabbard.' 

"  •  You  are  wrong  in  that,"  said  Merlin ;  '  it  is 
a  wonderful  sword  indeed — the  best  sword  in 
the  world — yet  the  scabbard  is  better.  For  the 
man  who  has  that  scabbard  by  him  can  never 
be  killed  in  battle,  and,  though  he  may  be 
wounded,  his  wounds  will  never  bleed  and  he 
will  lose  none  of  his  strength.  So  guard  them 
both,  but  more  than  anything  else  that  you 
have  guard  this  scabbard.' 

"  As  they  turned  to  go  down  the  hill  again 
Arthur  looked  back  once  more  at  the  lake.  All 
the  mist  was  gone  from  it  and  it  looked  like  any 
other  lake.  The  water  sparkled  in  the  sunlight 
that  shone  all  over  it,  and  Arthur  could  plainly 
see  the  other  shore  across  it  and  not  very  far 
off,  and  away  beyond  it  a  mountain  with  two 


198         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

peaks.  The  Lady  of  the  Lake  was  gone  and 
there  was  no  boat.  Everything  about  it  was 
changed  except  the  bird  like  a  sea-gull,  that 
wheeled  in  great  circles  high  up  in  the  air,  and 
the  soft  lapping  of  the  little  waves  against  the 
bank  and  the  strangeness  of  the  lake's  being 
there  on  the  hilltop." 

Have  you  ever  travelled  in  a  strange  country, 
with  nothing  to  guide  you  but  books  and  maps 
and  time-tables  ?  If  you  never  have  I  advise 
you  to  try  it.  If  the  strange  country  happens 
to  be  Cornwall,  I  advise  you  also  to  stick  to 
your  books  and  maps  and  time-tables  and  not 
to  trouble  yourself  about  what  the  people 
of  the  hotels  and  the  railways  tell  you.  If  the 
way  you  want  to  go  happens  to  be  the  way 
they  want  you  to  go,  it  is  all  very  well.  But 
if  it  doesn't,  then  they  will  tell  you  that  the 
way  they  want  you  to  go  is  the  only  way  there 
is.  I  have  said  that  I  do  not  know  just  where 
we  went  in  Cornwall  that  day,  but  I  do  know 
that  after  a  time  we  got  to  Wadebridge.  I 
know,  too,  that  it  was  luncheon-time. 

We  were  trying  to  find  Tintagel,  and  one  of 
my  books  said  that  a  stage-coach  went  there 
from  Wadebridge  every  other  day.  I  had 
asked  a  railway  man  if  there  was  a  coach  from 
Wadebridge  to  Tintagel  and  he  said  that  there 
was  not,  but  I  did  not  believe  him.  He  said 


A  Little  Jomnuy  in  Cornwall    199 

there  was  one  from  Bod  m  in.  But  I  was  re- 
solved to  go  from  Wadebridge.  It  might  not 
be  the  right  day  for  the  coach,  but  we  could 
stay  tffl  it  was.  If  it  proved  that  there  was  no 
coach  at  all  we  could  get  a  carriage.  So, 
against  all  advice,  we  came  to  Wadebridge. 
The  first  man  we  saw  was  a  railway  man — a 
porter.  "  Is  there  a  coach  from  here  to  Tin- 
tagelP-Iaskedhim. 
"No.sir/'he  said;  "there  BOM  from  Bod- 

I  hated  Bodmin  by  this  time,  so  I  made  up 
my  mind  that  we  would  go  by  carriage.  We 
walked  out  of  the  station  and  there  stood  an 
omnibus  from  an  hotel.  I  thought  I  would  try 
once  more.  "  Is  there  a  coach  that  runs  from 
here  to  Tintagel?"  I  asked  the  «••»••!•» 
driver. 

"Yes,  sir,"  he  said. 

I  cheered  up  at  once,  "  Does  it  go  to-day  or 
to-morrow?" 

"  Every  day,  sir." 

"Ah,  indeed,  and  at  what  time?" 

"  You've  just  about  time  to  catch  it,  sir." 

This  was  luck  indeed.  "And  where  does  it 
start  from?" 

"From  our  hotel,  sir;  get  right  in  and  111 
take  you  there." 

When  we  got  to  the  hotel  the  coach  had  not 
come  and  the  proprietor  thought  that 


2OO        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

have  time  for  luncheon.  We  thought  it  was 
worth  trying,  so  they  brought  us  the  cold  lamb 
and  the  bread  and  the  marmalade  and  the  Dev- 
onshire cream,  for  there  is  as  much  Devon- 
shire cream  in  Cornwall  as  there  is  in  Devon- 
shire. Before  we  were  done  with  these  we 
heard  the  coach-horn  outside.  But  there  was 
plenty  of  time,  they  said,  for  the  coach  did  not 
go  on  again  at  once,  and  so  it  proved. 

The  coach  was  pretty  full  already,  but  the 
guard  found  places  for  us  up  behind,  near  his 
own  seat.  We  were  rather  glad  afterward  that 
we  could  not  get  any  better  places,  because  the 
guard  proved  to  be  very  pleasant  company.  I 
asked  him  why  it  was  that  the  railway  men  had 
told  us  that  there  was  no  coach  from  Wade- 
bridge  to  Tintagel.  "  Why,  you  see,"  he  said, 
"this  coach  is  owned  by  the  other  railway. 
The  Bodmin  coach  belongs  to  their  railway." 

I  have  told  you  all  this  so  that  when  you  go 
to  Cornwall  you  may  have  your  eyes  open. 
Yet,  after  all  that  I  have  said,  you  must  not  ex- 
pect to  find  any  coach  running  between  Wade-, 
bridge  and  Camelford.  The  guard  told  us 
that  they  were  building  a  railway  to  take 
the  place  of  it,  and  no  doubt  it  was  done  long 
before  this  time.  I  ought  to  say,  too,  right 
here,  that  the  most  of  the  people  whom  we 
met  in  Cornwall  treated  us  honestly  and  most 
kindly.  They  did  all  that  they  could  to  make 


A  Little  Journey  in  Cornwall    201 

our  visit  among  them  pleasant,  and  we  shall 
always  remember  them  most  happily  and  grate- 
fully. 

Here  was  this  very  guard,  for  instance,  try- 
ing to  amuse  us  with  stories.  "  Do  you  see 
those  two  rocks  off  there?"  he  asked. 

Yes,  we  saw  them. 

"  They  call  those  the  Devil's  Jump,"  he  said. 
"They  tell  the  story  that  the  devil  tried  to 
jump  over  them  once,  and  couldn't  do  it  So 
he  never  got  any  farther  into  Cornwall  than 
that.  And  that  is  why  there  are  so  many 
saints  in  Cornwall,  for  all  the  parishes  from 
here  to  the  Land's  End  are  named  for  saints." 

"  I  have  heard  a  different  reason,"  I  said, 
"  for  the  devil's  keeping  out  of  Cornwall." 

"  Yes,  sir  ?  "  he  said,  with  an  upward  turn  of 
his  voice  that  meant :  "  I  should  be  glad  to 
hear  the  reason,  if  you  care  to  tell  me,  sir." 

"  Why,  I  have  heard,"  I  said,  "  that  the  people 
in  Cornwall  make  pies  out  of  so  many  differ- 
ent things  that  the  devil  will  never  come  here, 
for  fear  they  should  make  a  pie  out  of  him." 

I  knew  that  Cameiford,  near  where  we  were 
going  now,  pretended  to  be  the  real  Camelot, 
and  I  tried  to  find  out  if  the  guard  had  any- 
thing to  tell  us  about  King  Arthur.  He  did 
have  something  to  tell  that  surprised  me. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  he  said,  "  King  Arthur  lived  here 
at  Cameiford,  and  the  battle  where  he  was 


202        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

killed  was  fought  here.  There  is  a  bridge  that 
they  call  Slaughter  Bridge,  where  they  say  he 
was  killed,  and  there  is  a  stone  near  by,  with 
some  letters  on  it,  where  they  say  he  was 
buried." 

All  this  was  so  new  to  me  that  I  did  not 
know  at  all  what  to  say.  "  Was  King  Arthur 
killed  in  a  battle,  then  ?  "  Helen  asked. 

"  Really,"  I  answered,  "  I  don't  quite  know. 
He  fought  a  great  battle  at  last  and  was 
wounded,  and  some  said  that  he  was  killed. 
Others  believed  that  he  was  carried  away  to 
the  beautiful  island  of  Avalon,  to  be  cured  of 
his  wounds.  And  there  the  old  story-tellers 
said  that  he  was  living  still,  and  that  some- 
time, when  England  was  in  great  danger,  he 
would  come  back  to  fight  again  and  to  save  his 
people.  But  I  did  not  think  that  that  last 
great  battle  was  here." 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  the  guard  again,  "  they  will 
show  you  Slaughter  Bridge,  where  he  was 
killed,  and  the  gravestone  close  by." 

We  did  not  go  to  Camelford  village  that 
day.  The  coach  took  us  to  the  Camelford  rail- 
way station,  and  the  guard  told  us  that  the  vil- 
lage was  two  miles  off.  Neither  did  we  have 
time  to  find  Slaughter  Bridge  and  King  Ar- 
thur's gravestone,  but  we  resolved  to  look  for 
them  some  other  time.  At  the  station  we  had 
to  leave  the  coach  and  take  a  carriage  for 


A  Little  Journey  in  Cornwall    203 

Tintagel.  It  was  a  big,  long  affair,  of  the  sort 
that  we  call  a  drag.  I  don't  know  what  they 
call  it  in  England,  but  I  rather  think  they  call 
it  a  drag  too. 

As  soon  as  we  had  left  the  station  everything 
around  us  seemed  to  change.  Before  the  roads 
had  looked  like  the  Devon  roads.  There  were 
the  same  green  hedges  along  both  sides  of  them, 
so  high,  sometimes,  that  sitting  there  on  the 
top  of  the  coach  we  could  not  see  over  them. 
Now.  instead  of  the  green  hedges,  there  were 
gray  walls  of  slate.  But  they  were  almost  as 
pretty  as  the  hedges — prettier,  sometimes,  we 
thought,  for  a  change.  For  their  color  was  a 
soft,  warm  gray,  and  grass  and  little  flowers, 
yellow  and  blue,  grew  in  the  chinks  between 
the  stones,  and  now  and  then  a  scarlet  poppy, 
glowing  like  a  big  ruby  in  the  sunlight,  stood 
straight  up  on  the  top  of  a  wall,  as  if  it  wanted 
to  catch  the  fresh  breeze  blowing  in  from  the 
ocean  better  than  it  could  down  in  the  field. 

The  whole  country  about  here  is  made  of 
slate.  Sometimes  our  way  was  between  two 
great  piles  of  it,  built  up  with  smooth  sides 
toward  the  road,  so  that  we  seemed  to  be  rid- 
ing between  two  huge  castles.  They  were  so 
high  that  we  could  see  nothing  over  them  and 
nothing  beyond  them  where  the  road  curved. 
Here  the  coach-horn  was  no  mere  ornament  or 
toy.  As  the  carriage  went  dashing  along  the 


204        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

narrow  road  and  whirling  around  the  curves 
the  driver  blew  clear  notes  on  the  horn  to  warn 
anybody  ahead  of  us  that  we  were  coming. 
For  if  another  carriage,  going  at  the  same  rate 
as  ours,  had  met  us  without  warning  as  we 
turned  one  of  those  quick  corners,  it  would 
have  been  worse  than  the  crash  of  two  lines  of 
knights  in  a  tournament.  For  we  had  no  iron 
clothes  on,  and  we  were  not  used  to  it.  There 
were  some  other  things,  too,  that  looked  just 
dangerous  enough  to  make  us  feel  a  little  hap- 
pier. These  were  the  great  holes  filled  with 
water,  where  slate  had  been  taken  out.  There 
was  one  of  them  by  the  side  of  the  road  that 
looked  like  a  harmless  sort  of  puddle  where  the 
children  might  sail  their  boats,  but  the  driver 
told  us  that  it  was  a  hundred  feet  deep. 

And  so  it  was  a  pleasant  ride,  but  it  was  not 
long,  and  in  a  little  while  we  were  rather  sorry 
to  get  to  Tintagel.  It  is  a  bit  of  a  village,  just 
a  few  houses  ranged  along  the  two  sides  of  a 
street.  There  are  three  or  four  large  houses 
and  two  of  them  are  hotels.  To  be  more  ex- 
act, they  are  two  parts  of  the  same  hotel — the 
Wharncliffe  Arms.  It  was  something  of  a  sur- 
prise and  much  of  a  pleasure  to  us  to  find  in 
such  a  tiny  place  as  Tintagel  that  the  hotel  was 
large  and  well  kept,  and  good  in  every  way. 

But  there  was  something  else  that  made  me 
like  Tintagel  as  soon  as  I  saw  it.  For  it  is 


A  Little  Journey  in  Cornwall    205 

perched  on  a  high  plain,  with  the  strong,  sweet 
air  of  the  sea  blowing  freshly  and  freely  over 
it.  I  always  feel  a  gladness  when  I  come  near 
the  ocean,  for  I  feel  that  I  am  with  an  old 
friend.  I  feel  more  at  home  when  I  am  near  it, 
and  I  am  sure  we  were  all  at  home  there  at  Tin- 
tagel  as  soon  as  we  caught  the  sweep  of  that 
wind  coming  off  the  water  and  over  the  cliffs 
and  over  the  fields.  And  had  we  not  good 
cause  to  feel  at  home  here  ?  Was  not  this  the 
same  ocean  that  we  had  loved  so  long,  the 
same  by  the  side  of  which  we  had  sat  so  many 
times,  Helen  and  I,  telling  and  hearing  stories? 
The  same  ocean,  but  different  sides.  The  ris- 
ing sun  shines  on  our  side  of  it,  and  the  setting 
sun  on  this.  That  is  alL 


CHAPTER  X 
WHO  THE  KING  REALLY  WAS 

WE  did  not  go  to  see  the  castle  of  Tintagel 
till  evening.  There  were  two  or  three  reasons. 
It  was  getting  a  little  late  in  the  afternoon 
when  we  reached  the  village,  and  we  were  a 
little  tired  after  our  journey.  But  the  best 
reason  was  that  it  is  always  better,  when  you 
can,  to  see  ruins  for  the  first  time  by  moonlight. 
There  was  a  good  moon  to-night  and  I  knew 
that  our  first  view  of  the  castle  would  be  a 
good  one.  "  Many  people  who  come  here," 
some  one  had  said  to  us  at  the  hotel,  "are  dis- 
appointed because  there  is  so  little  left  of  the 
ruins.  They  seem  to  expect  to  see  something 
like  Kenilworth.  They  ought  to  remember 
that  this  castle  has  been  going  to  ruin  a  good 
deal  longer  than  Kenilworth,  and  that  it  has  to 
stand  the  terrible  storms  of  this  rough  coast." 

"  I  don't  believe  we  shall  be  disappointed  in  the 
least,"  I  said,  as  we  walked  through  the  village 


Who  the  King  Really   Was        207 

toward  the  shore  and  the  castle.  "  I  feel  here 
more  than  I  have  felt  anywhere  else  that  we 
are  in  King  Arthur's  own  country.  I  don't 
think  that  he  ever  lived  at  Tintagel  at  all, 
though  they  call  it  King  Arthur's  castle.  Be- 
fore his  time  Tintagel  Castle  belonged  to  the 
Duke  of  Cornwall.  And  so  it  does  now,  only 
now  the  Duke  of  Cornwall  is  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  too,  and  then  he  was  not.  And  after 
that  it  belonged  to  Mark,  the  King  of  Cornwall, 
who  was  as  false  and  crafty  and  cowardly  as 
Arthur  was  true  and  noble  and  brave.  Yet 
this  really  was  Arthur's  country,  and  it  seems 
to  me  that  this  rugged  coast  and  these  cliffs 
that  for  thousands  of  years  have  stood  against 
the  power  and  the  fury  of  the  ocean,  and  this 
free,  open  sky,  are  more  worthy  of  King  Arthur 
than  anything  else  that  I  have  ever  seen  in 
England. 

"  Everything  here  can  remind  you  of  him,  if 
you  look  at  it  rightly.  Why,  look  up  into 
the  sky  itself.  At  home  we  see  the  same  stars 
that  we  see  here,  but  some  of  them  have  differ- 
ent names.  Those  up  there  above  our  heads 
we  call  the  Lyre,  but  here  they  are  Arthur's 
Harp.  And  there  is  our  old  friend  the  Dipper, 
but  here  we  must  call  it  Arthur's  Chariot" 

We  had  left  the  village  by  this  time  and  were 
going  up  over  a  grassy  hillside.  In  a  few  min- 
utes our  path  brought  us  to  the  gate  of  the 


208        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

castle.  We  stopped  to  look  at  it  a  moment  be- 
fore we  went  in.  Before  us  was  a  piece  of  low, 
ruined  wall,  with  a  gate-way  in  it.  It  had  been 
arched  once,  but  now  one  side  of  the  arch  was 
all  gone  and  there  was  just  enough  left  of  the 
other  side  to  show  what  the  shape  of  it  had 
been.  Right  up  above  this,  and  above  us,  on 
our  left  hand,  rose  a  high  rock,  and  on  that  a 
wall,  worn  and  battered  and  beaten  away  in- 
deed, and  still  crumbling,  but  even  now  heavy 
and  thick  and  strong-looking,  even  now  scowl- 
ing down  at  us,  as  if  it  would  have  us  know 
that  it  cared  nothing  for  war  or  storm  or  time. 
"  Do  you  see,"  I  said,  "  what  a  strong  place 
this  must  have  been?  See  how  that  piece  of 
wall  stands  up  above  everything  and  looks  out 
over  everything.  Try  to  think  of  it  as  higher 
still,  with  a  rampart  on  its  top,  and  then  think  of 
a  tower  above  that.  The  castle  has  only  this  one 
little  gate  on  the  side  toward  the  land.  If  any 
enemy  came  against  it,  it  must  be  by  this  road 
that  we  have  come,  and  from  the  top  of  that 
wall  every  one  who  came  could  be  seen  I  don't 
know  how  far  off.  They  had  no  big  guns  then 
to  shoot  at  a  castle  miles  away.  They  had  ma- 
chines to  throw  stones,  and  they  could  shoot  ar- 
rows, but  it  was  easier  to  shoot  them  down  than 
up,  and  I  think  the  men  on  the  walls  of  a  castle 
like  this  must  have  been  a  good  deal  better  off 
than  any  men  down  below  who  might  happen 


Who  the  King  Really   Was        209 

to  be  attacking  them.  Then,  if  the  enemy  got 
near  enough,  they  had  only  to  drop  stones,  in- 
stead of  throwing  them.  They  used  to  pour 
down  boiling  water  from  the  walls  of  castles, 
too,  and  drop  other  things  that  made  it  un- 
pleasant for  anybody  who  happened  to  be  in 
their  way. 

"  Now  let  us  come  in  through  the  gate  and 
see  how  the  castle  looks  on  the  side  toward 
the  water.  No,  I  don't  think  anybody  would 
ever  try  to  attack  it  on  this  side.  Look  across 
this  chasm  and  see  the  other  part  of  the  castle, 
up  there  on  the  rocks.  That  is  all  but  an  island 
over  there.  See  how  the  rocks  stand  almost 
straight  up  out  of  the  ocean,  and  how  high 
above  it  the  castle  is.  Hear  the  waves  crash- 
ing and  pounding  away  down  below  there,  and 
then  try  to  think  whether  any  one  would  have 
an  easy  time  coming  against  Tintagel  by  sea. 
They  say  that  this  chasm  was  narrower  once, 
and  there  was  a  bridge  across  from  this  pan  of 
the  castle  where  we  are  to  the  other  part,  over 
there  on  the  island.  Suppose,  then,  that  the 
enemy  should  batter  down  this  wall.  All  that 
the  people  of  the  castle  would  have  to  do  would 
be  to  cross  over  to  the  island  and  throw  down 
the  bridge,  and  what  could  any  army  in  the 
world,  without  cannon,  do  against  them  then  ? 
As  long  as  food  held  out  I  would  much  rather 
try  to  hold  this  castle  than  try  to  take  it. 


2io        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

"  Do  you  think  this  is  too  long  a  lecture 
about  old-fashioned  war?  Well,  you  see,  I  want 
to  make  you  feel  what  a  wonderful  castle  this 
is  as  much  as  I  feel  it.  And  yet  its  strength  is 
not  what  makes  it  seem  so  wonderful  to  me.  It 
is  the  stories  about  it.  Those  are  the  wonder- 
ful places,  after  all,  I  think — the  ones  that  have 
wonderful  stories  about  them.  It  was  so  many 
years  ago  that  I  heard  of  Tintagel  first,  and  I 
have  read  so  much  about  it  since  then,  that  I 
can  scarcely  believe  that  at  last  I  am  really 
standing  in  Tintagel  Castle.  I  have  to  stop 
and  tell  myself  that  it  was  just  here — here — 
where  we  are  this  moment,  that  Arthur — but  I 
have  not  told  you  that  story  yet,  have  I  ? 

"  Do  you  remember  how,  long  ago,  when  we 
used  to  see  stories  in  the  fire,  we  sat  on  the 
shore  one  .night  and  looked  at  a  moon  just  like 
this  one,  and  at  a  sea  very  different  from  this 
one  ?  Do  you  remember  how  we  saw  a  ship 
coming  from  the  island  away  off  in  the  dark- 
ness toward  us  and  toward  a  eastle  on  the 
shore  ?  Do  you  remember,  too,  the  knight  who 
was  on  the  ship  and  the  princess  whom  he  was 
bringing  to  be  the  wife  of  his  King,  and  how 
they  drank  the  magic  love-potion  together  and 
always  loved  each  other  as  long  as  they  lived  ? 
Well,  it  was  this  very  castle  of  Tintagel  that 
we  saw  that  night.  This  was  the  very  sea  that 
they  sailed  across.  The  island,  which  we  could 


Who  the  King  Really    Was        211 

see  then,  being  three  thousand  miles  away,  but 
which  we  cannot  see,  now  that  we  are  here, 
was  Ireland.  The  knight  was  Tristram  and 
the  princess  was  Isolt  The  King  was  King 
Mark,  of  Cornwall,  Tristram's  uncle,  who  lived 
here  at  Tintagel.  I  told  you  then  that  King 
Mark  seemed  to  me  as  kind  and  generous 
a  man  as  you  could  wish,  but  I  told  you,  too, 
that  some  time  you  might  find  out  that  he  was 
a  very  wicked  man — mean,  cruel,  and  treach- 
erous. You  see,  I  sometimes  disagree  with 
myself  a  little,  because  I  am  telling  different 
stories.  You  can  believe  whichever  story  you 
like.  As  for  myself,  I  find  no  trouble  in  be- 
lieving both  of  them. 

"  Now  look  along  this  shore,  there  to  the 
southwest,  as  far  as  you  can  see.  The  shore 
reaches  down  there,  a  good  deal  farther  than 
you  can  see,  to  the  Land's  End.  It  was  not  the 
Land's  End  in  those  days,  for  out  beyond  it  a 
rocky  country  stretched  into  the  sea,  as  far  as 
where  the  Sciily  Islands  are  now.  That  was 
Lyonnesse,  Tristram's  country.  Tristram's 
father  was  the  King  of  Lyonnesse  and  his 
mother  was  the  sister  of  King  Mark.  Now 
Lyonnesse  is  all  gone — sunk  under  the  ocean 
and  lost— all  but  those  rocks  standing  out  there 
alone,  far  off  from  any  other  land,  the  Sciily 
Islands.  Tristram  was  one  of  those  knights 
whom  I  have  told  you  of  who  would  rathtr  be 


212        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

knights  of  Arthur  than  kings  in  their  own 
lands.  Yet  at  the  time  I  am  telling  you  about 
now,  Tristram  was  not  a  knight  of  the  Round 
Table  or  of  Arthur's  court,  but  he  was  after- 
ward,  and  while  he  lived  he  was  the  best 
knight  of  the  world  after  Lancelot." 

There  is  a  carpet  of  grass,  with  patterns  of 
blue  and  yellow  flowers,  all  over  the  court-yard 
and  in  all  the  halls  and  rooms  of  Tintagel 
Castle.  We  sat  down  on  the  carpet,  in  a  spot 
where  a  piece  of  wall  sheltered  us  a  little  from 
the  wind,  and  listened  to  the  restless  rumbling 
and  dashing  of  the  waves  down  in  the  little  bay 
below  us.  Yes,  ruins  are  best  by  moonlight. 
In  the  clear,  sharp  light  of  day  they  are  like 
the  skeletons  of  old,  long-dead  times.  The}7 
are  seen  too  plainly.  It  is  so  easy  to  know 
what  they  are  that  it  is  hard  to  think  what  they 
were.  But  in  the  dim  half-light  of  the  moon 
they  are  not  the  bones  any  longer,  but  the  spir- 
its, the  ghosts  of  other  days.  Then  your 
fancy  can  build  up  the  walls  and  halls  and 
towers  again  and  bring  back  their  people  to 
them.  To-morrow,  here  where  we  sit,  there 
will  be  people  laughing  and  talking  and  mak- 
ing sketches  and  taking  photographs,  and  there 
will  be  every-day  sights  and  sounds.  To-night 
we  have  the  place  to  ourselves,  and  there  are 
no  voices  but  our  own  and  no  other  sounds  but 
those  of  the  sea,  which  were  here  always. 


Who  the  King  Really   Was        213' 

And  so,  for  me,  these  walls  rose  around  us 
again,  higher  and  stronger  and  statelier.  Again 
there  were  towers  above  them  that  looked  far 
over  the  land  and  over  the  sea.  The  grass 
was  gone  and  the  court-yard  had  a  floor  of 
stone.  The  castle  spread  out  wider,  too,  as 
well  as  higher.  Even  old  rocks  of  the  coast, 
that  long  ago  fell,  with  the  wear  of  the  wind 
and  the  waves,  down  into  that  boiling  depth, 
came  back  and  stood  fast  to  hold  the  castle 
walls.  The  gorge  was  narrower  and  the  bridge 
that  led  over  to  the  island  was  in  its  place 
again.  Then,  all  at  once,  the  court-yard  filled 
with  armed  men.  The  little  door  where  we 
had  come  in  was  barred  and  barricaded  against 
an  enemy.  There  was  a  sound  of  horses'  hoofs 
on  the  pavement,  and  men  were  watching  from 
the  ramparts  and  the  tower.  There  was  a 
woman,  too — the  Duchess  of  Cornwall.  She 
climbed  up  to  the  tower  and  looked  out 
over  the  land  to  see  if  the  Duke,  her  hus- 
band, was  coming.  And  even  before  she 
looked  for  him  he  had  been  killed  in  battle 
and  he  would  never  come  back.  Yet  she  saw 
three  figures  coming  toward  the  castle  that 
were  so  like  the  Duke  and  two  of  his  men 
that  she  ran  down  to  meet  them  and  the  gate 
was  opened  for  them.  But  it  was  all  enchant- 
ment, their  looking  like  the  Duke  and  his 
men,  and  so  the  gate,  that  they  never  could 


214         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

have  opened  for  themselves,  was  opened  for 
them — 

"  What  makes  them  call  it  King  Arthur's 
castle,"  Helen  asked,  "  if  he  never  lived  in  it  ?" 

"  Well,  that  is  a  story  that  I  suppose  I  must 
tell  you.  Once,  when  Arthur  was  at  Caerleon- 
upon-Usk,  there  came  to  visit  him  Queen 
Ygerne.  She  had  been  the  wife  of  Uther  Pen- 
dragon  when  he  was  King  of  England.  And 
she  brought  her  daughter,  Morgan  -  le  -  Fay. 
'  Le  Fay  '  means  '  the  fairy/  and  they  called  her 
that  because  she  knew  so  much  about  magic. 
She  did  not  know  anywhere  near  so  much 
about  it  as  Merlin  did,  of  course,  but  she  knew 
a  great  deal.  She  was  the  wife  of  King  Urien 
and  the  mother  of  Uwain,  who,  you  know,  was 
one  of  King  Arthur's  knights.  She  was  very 
beautiful,  and,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  very  wicked. 

"  But  the  story  is  not  about  her.  Arthur  re- 
ceived Ygerne  and  Morgan-le-Fay,  of  course, 
as  he  ought  to  receive  a  queen  and  a  princess 
who  was  the  wife  of  a  king  and  so  a  queen  too. 
But  there  was  one  knight  in  his  court  who  did 
not  like  to  see  such  honors  paid  to  Ygerne, 
even  though  she  had  been  Queen  of  England. 
This  was  Ulfius,  and  he  spoke  to  the  King,  be- 
fore all  the  people  in  the  hall,  and  said  that  it 
was  wrong  to  do  honor  to  this  woman,  for  she 
was  not  worthy  of  it.  '  Ulfius,'  said  the  King, 
'  do  you  know  what  you  say  ?  Do  you  not  re- 


Who  the  King  Really   Was        215 

member  that  this  woman  was  King  Uther's 
wife  and  that  you  were  his  knight  ?  Have  you 
no  more  loyalty  than  this? ' 

"  *  I  know,  my  lord,'  said  Ulfius,  '  what  I  say, 
and  I  tell  you  that  this  woman  is  not  worthy 
to  come  into  your  hall.  When  she  was  King 
Uther's  wife  she  had  a  child,  a  son,  who  would 
have  been  King  of  England  after  Uther  died. 
But  she  deserted  her  child — sent  him  away 
from  her  as  soon  as  he  was  born.  She  never 
knew  whether  he  lived  or  died — never  cared — 
and  so  all  those  years  before  you  came  to  us, 
my  lord,  England  had  no  king.  Was  not  this 
wickedness  enough  ?  I  will  prove  what  I  say 
against  any  one  who  cares  to  fight  for  her.' 

"  Then  the  King  looked  at  Ygerne  and  she 
answered :  '  What  he  says  is  partly  true,  my 
lord,  but  not  all.  I  did  lose  my  child  and 
never  knew  whether  he  lived  or  died,  but  I  did 
care.  How  does  he  dare  to  say  that  I  did  not 
care?  Does  he  think  it  was  easy  for  me  to  let 
my  child  go  away  from  me  and  never  come 
back?  I  am  a  woman  and  I  cannot  fight  with 
him,  but  there  must  be  some  brave  man  here 
in  your  court  who  will  fight  for  me.  I  will 
swear  to  him  that  I  did  nothing  wicked  in  this 
that  Sir  Ulfius  charges.' 

"  You  know  that  was  another  of  their  queer 
ways.  I  have  surely  told  you  about  it  before. 
Anybody  could  accuse  anybody  else  of  any- 


216        The   Court  of  King  Arthur 

thing  he  liked,  as  long  as  he  was  willing  to 
'prove'  it,  as  they  called  it,  by  fighting.  Then 
the  one  who  was  accused,  or  someone  else  for 
him,  must  fight  with  the  accuser,  and  the  whole 
question  was  settled,  guilty  or  not  guilty,  by 
the  way  the  fight  went. 

" '  There  shall  be  no  fighting  yet,'  said  the 
King,  '  but  Ulfius  shall  tell  us  more  of  what  he 
has  to  say  against  you  and  you  shall  answer 
him.  Ulfius,  you  have  always  been  a  good 
knight  to  Uther  Pendragon  and  to  me.  You 
would  not  say  these  things,  I  know,  if  you  did 
not  believe  that  they  were  true.  So  tell  us  all 
that  you  know,  that  I  may  judge  between  you 
and  this  woman.' 

" '  My  lord,'  said  Ulfius,  '  long  ago  this 
Ygerne  was  the  wife  of  Gorlois,  the  Duke  of 
Cornwall.  Once  she  came  to  King  Uther's 
court  with  him,  and  the  King  loved  her.  He 
loved  her  so  much  that  he  made  war  against 
Gorlois,  so  that  he  might  kill  him  and  marry 
his  wife,  this  Ygerne.  Then  Gorlois,  to  keep 
his  wife  and  himself  safe  from  King  Uther, 
shut  her  up  in  the  castle  of  Tintagel  and  shut 
himself  up  in  another  castle  that  he  had,  called 
Terrabil.  Uther  laid  siege  to  the  castle  of  Ter- 
rabil.  Gorlois  came  out  to  fight  with  him  and 
was  killed  in  the  battle.  Still  his  wife  was  in 
the  castle  of  Tintagel,  and  we  could  not  hope 
to  take  that.  It  was  too  strong  and  there  were 


Who  the  King  Really   Was        217 

too  many  good  knights  in  it  with  her.  Merlin 
was  King  Other's  friend  then  and  I  went  to 
find  him  to  ask  if  he  would  help  the  King.  I 
found  him  and  brought  him  and  he  went  into 
the  King's  tent.  I  do  not  know  what  he  said 
to  the  King. " 

"'  Then  do  not  try  to  tell,"  said  the  voice  of 
some  one  close  to  King  Arthur.  It  was  Mer- 
lin himself.  He  came  before  the  King  and 
stood  there  and  looked  at  Ulfius,  in  the  way 
he  had  when  he  meant  to  manage  things  him- 
self just  as  he  pleased.  And  yon  know  that 
when  Merlin  meant  to  manage  things  he  al- 
ways did  it.  '  I  will  tell  you  what  I  said  to 
King  Uther/  he  went  on.  '  I  said  to  him  that 
he  should  have  Ygerne  for  his  wife,  if  he 
would  grant  me  one  thing.  He  promised  that 
he  would  grant  me  anything.  *•  Then  promise 
me,"  I  said,  "that  when  you  and  your  new 
Queen  have  a  child,  yon  will  give  him  to  me  to 
bring  up  as  I  choose,"  and  he  promised  it. 
Then  I  told  him  that  I  would  make  him  look 
likeGorlois;  that  I  would  make  Ulfius  look  like 
Brastias,  who  was  one  of  the  Duke's  knights 
then,  and  myself  like  Jordans,  another  of  the 
Duke's  knights ;  that  so  we  would  go  to  Tin- 
tagel  and  they  would  let  us  in.  Now,  Ulfius, 
tell  us  what  was  done  next.' 

"  •  What  was  done  next  ?'  said  Ulfius ;  '  why, 
by  some  of  your  enchantment,  Merlin,  yon 


2i8        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

changed  us  as  you  have  said.  You  made  King 
Uther  look  like  Gorlois,  and  me  like  Brastias, 
and  yourself  like  Jordans.  We  came  to  Tin- 
tagel  and  they  opened  the  gate  for  us  and 
then— 

'"Let  Queen  Ygerne  tell  the  King  what 
then,'  said  Merlin.  '  It  is  time  for  her  story 
now.' 

" '  My  lord,'  Ygerne  said,  '  it  is  hard  for  me 
to  tell  you.  I  thought  that  he  was  my  husband, 
Gorlois,  at  first,  and  when  I  heard  that  Gorlois 
was  dead  I  scarcely  knew  or  cared  what  hap- 
pened. But  King  Uther's  men  and  the  Duke's 
men — my  men — said  that  it  would  be  best  for 
me  to  be  married  to  him.  My  own  men  said 
that  if  I  was  not  he  would  still  make  war  on  us, 
and  it  was  nothing  to  me  then  what  happened. 
And  so  we  were  married.  And  what  must  I 
tell  you  now,  my  lord?' 

"  '  Tell  now  about  the  child,'  said  Merlin. 

" '  The  child  ?  Yes,'  Ygerne  answered.  '  He 
was  taken  away  from  me  as  soon  as  he  was 
born,  as  Ulfius  has  said.  But  it  was  King 
Uther  himself  who  took  him  away,  and  he  gave 
the  child  to  a  servant  and  told  him  to  go  to 
the  gate  of  the  castle  and  give  him  to  the  poor 
man  who  was  waiting  there.  And  the  servant 
came  back  and  said  that  the  poor  man  had 
taken  the  child  away.  I  do  not  know  why 
they  took  him.' 


Who  the  King  Really   Was        219 

" '  They  took  him,1  said  Merlin,  '  because  I 
told  them  to  do  it.  King  Uther  had  promised 
the  child  to  me.  And  now,  Sir  Ulfius,  what  if 
this  young  prince  had  been  left  with  his 
mother?  King  Uther  died  soon  after  that. 
You  know  what  the  lords  and  the  kings  were 
in  those  days.  What  would  have  happened  to 
a  baby  King  of  England?  Would  they  not 
have  killed  him  before  his  mother's  eyes? 
You  know  they  would.  But  I  saved  him 
from  that.* 

"  Then  Merlin  turned  to  the  King  and  said : 
'My  lord,  I  was  that  poor  man  who  stood  at 
the  gate.  I  took  the  child  away  with  me.  We 
left  the  shadow  of  the  castle  walls  and  came 
out  into  the  clear  moonlight.  We  came  out 
into  the  sea  wind  too.  We  could  hear  it  hum- 
ming and  whistling  around  the  castle.  But  it 
was  not  a  common  wind.  For  I  could  hear 
something  more.  I  could  hear  sweet  little 
voices  in  it.  They  came  nearer  to  us  and 
gathered  around  us.  They  were  the  voices  of 
fairies.  I  could  hear  what  they  said,  and  so 
.could  the  baby  in  my  arms.  But  the  baby  for- 
got it  all.  Babies  always  forget  what  they  hear 
and  see  and  think.  If  they  did  not,  grown  up 
men  would  know  some  strange  things.  But  I 
remembered.  One  of  the  fairy  voices  said: 
"Let  us  watch  around  this  baby  and  guard 
him  and  help  him  to  grow  up  to  be  a  good 


220         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

man."  And  another  said:  "He  shall  be  the 
truest  of  knights  some  day ;  this  gift  I  give 
him."  And  another  said:  "This  gift  I  give 
him :  he  shall  be  the  noblest  of  kings."  And 
another  said :  "  He  shall  be  generous  .and 
brave;  these  are  my  gifts  to  him."  And  at 
last  a  fairy  voice  said :  "  He  shall  live  till  he 
has  made  many  better  and  happier ;  and  after 
he  is  dead  they  shall  bless  him."  And  the 
wind  died  away  and  the  voices  died  away. 

" '  And  I  carried  the  child,  my  lord,  and 
gave  him  to  a  faithful  knight  of  Uther's,  Sir 
Ector,  and  told  him  to  keep  him  and  to  care  for 
him  as  if  he  were  his  own  son.' 

"  When  the  King  heard  the  name  of  Sir 
Ector  it  surprised  him  more  than  anything  else 
he  had  heard.  'Where  is  Sir  Ector?'  he 
said. 

"  '  I  am  here,  my  lord,'  Sir  Ector  answered, 
coming  and  standing  before  him. 

"'What  did  you  do  with  this  child?'  the 
King  asked. 

" '  I  kept  him,  my  lord,'  the  old  knight  an- 
swered, '  as  Merlin  told  me,  and  I  cared  for 
him  as  if  he  had  been  my  own  son.' 

" '  Sir  Ector,'  said  the  King,  '  I  have  always 
known  you  for  the  truest  man  in  England,  and 
I  have  known  you  as  if  you  were  my  own 
father.  Yet  how  can  this  be  ?  I  have  been 
with  you  all  these  years  and  there  were  no 


Who  the  King  Really   Was        221 

sons  in  your  house  but  Kay,  who  is  now  my 
seneschal,  and  I.  What  did  you  do  with  that 
child  ?  Where  is  he  now  ? ' 

" '  He  sits  there,  my  lord,1  Sir  Ector  answered, 
'on  the  throne  before  me.' 

"  Then  at  last  Arthur  saw  it  all,  as  you  saw 
it,  no  doubt,  some  time  ago.  He  was  the  baby 
who  heard  the  fairy  voices  and  forgot  them. 
He  was  the  son  of  old  King  Uther  Pendragon 
and  Queen  Ygerne.  He  came  down  from  his 
seat  and  took  his  mother  in  his  arms,  and  then 
he  led  her  to  the  throne  and  made  her  sit  down 
upon  it  by  his  side.  And  Ulfius  came  and 
knelt  before  them  and  said :  '  Forgive  me, 
my  lord;  I  thought  that  what  I  said  was 
right* 

"  And  Arthur  answered :  '  We  know  you 
thought  that  you  were  right,  but  guard  well 
what  you  think  and  what  you  say.  My 
mother  and  I  forgive  you/ 

"  I  have  never  read  of  anything  that  Ygerne 
did  or  of  anything  that  happened  to  her  after 
that.  But  you  see  that  the  castle  of  Tintagel 
is  called  King  Arthur's  castle,  not  because  he 
lived  here,  but  because  he  was  bora  here." 


CHAPTER  XI 

SOME   LITTLE  ADVENTURES  OF   LANCELOT 

WE  went  to  the  castle  the  next  morning 
to  see  how  it  looked  by  daylight.  "  I  sup- 
pose I  ought  to  tell  you  before  we  get  any 
farther,"  I  said,  as  we  took  the  road  toward 
the  shore  again,  "  that  when  King  Arthur 
found  out  that  he  was  the  son  of  King  Uther 
Pendragon,  he  found  out  one  or  two  other 
things.  Queen  Bellicent,  the  wife  of  King 
Lot,  of  Orkney,  was  the  daughter  of  Gorlois 
and  Ygerne,  Arthur's  mother.  Perhaps  you 
remember  and  perhaps  you  have  forgotten  that 
Queen  Bellicent  was  the  mother  of  Gawain, 
Gaheris,  Agravain,  and  Gareth,  so  that  all 
these  were  King  Arthur's  nephews.  Theji 
Queen  Morgan-le-Fay,  the  wife  of  King  Urien, 
was  the  daughter  of  Ygerne,  too,  and  so  Uwain 
was  King  Arthur's  nephew.  These  are  just 
some  little  family  affairs  that  it  may  be  conven- 
ient to  know." 


Some  Little  Adventures  of  Lancelot   223 

When  we  reached  the  castle  we  went  in 
again  through  the  broken  doorway  and  stood 
looking  out  upon  the  sunny  sea  and  away 
along  the  rocky  coast,  with  its  steep  headland 
after  headland,  and  down  into  that  pit  below 
us,  where  the  waves  seem  to  be  always  rolling 
and  tumbling  over  the  rough,  broken  rocks, 
even  when  they  look  calm  out  at  sea.  "  There 
are  wonderful  things  about  this  castle,"  I  said, 
"  besides  that  King  Arthur  was  born  here  and 
that  King  Mark  lived  here  and  that  Tristram 
brought  Isolt  here.  The  castle  was  built  by 
giants,  it  was  said,  and  when  it  stood  here  in 
all  its  strength  and  glory  it  used  to  be  in- 
visible on  two  days  of  every  year.  One  of 
these  days  was  Christmas  and  the  other  was 
in  the  summer.  It  was  Midsummer  Day,  I 
suppose,  though  the  story  does  not  say  so. 
Perhaps  you  think  the  most  of  the  castle  is 
invisible  now.  Perhaps  you  are  right,  but 
every  stone  of  it  disappeared  then,  and  the  only 
way  the  people  who  lived  near  it  could  tell 
where  it  was  on  those  days  was  by  certain 
other  things  that  they  knew  were  in  a  line  with 
it,  just  as  a  fisherman  knows  how  to  find  a 
spot  on  the  water  where  he  has  found  good 
fishing." 

We  had  not  gone  close  to  the  other  part  of 
the  castle,  over  on  the  island,  yet,  and  we 
thought  that  it  was  time  we  did.  So  we 


224         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

scrambled  down  the  steep  side  of  the  hill,  half- 
walking  and  running,  and  half -slipping  and 
sliding,  till  we  got  into  the  road  at  the  bottom 
of  the  ravine.  Then  we  had  to  go  to  the 
house  where  they  kept  the  key  of  the  castle 
and  borrow  it.  This  keeping  of  keys  to  lend 
is  a  beautiful  plan.  They  lend  one  to  anybody 
who  asks  for  it,  and  so  you  may  not  see  at  first 
why  they  should  not  leave  the  door  open  and 
let  everybody  go  in  without  the  key.  It  is  be- 
cause when  you  bring  the  key  back  there  is  a 
very  good  chance  for  you  to  give  a  little  tip 
to  the  old  woman  who  keeps  it,  and  so,  I  sup- 
pose, she  gets  a  fair  living,  and  goodness  knows 
how  she  would  get  it  if  she  did  not  have  the 
key  of  the  castle  to  lend  to  people. 

We  knocked  at  the  door  of  the  old  woman's 
house  and  asked  her  if  she  had  the  key,  just  as  if 
we  had  not  read  the  sign  outside  that  said  she 
had.  She  gave  us  the  key  and  told  us  to  put 
it  into  the  lock  upside  down,  to  lock  the  door 
again  after  we  had  gone  in,  and  not  to  bother 
about  the  people  who  were  already  there,  be- 
cause they  had  another  key.  Then  we  went 
down  the  narrow  path  along  the  rocks,  across 
the  little  neck  of  land  to  what  they  call  the 
island,  and  up  the  rocks  on  the  other  side  till 
we  came  to  a  wall,  with  ramparts  and  a  little 
door,  where  we  had  to  use  our  key.  It  was  a 
beautiful,  old,  romantic-looking  wall,  and  we 


Same  LitlU  Adventures  of  Lancelot  225 

stopped  to  admire  it  before  we  went  in.  We 
thought  that  it  was  by  far  the  finest  part  of  the 
castle  that  we  had  seen  jet.  We  found  out  af- 
terward that  it  was  built  only  about  fifty  years 
ago.  They  built  it  just  so  that  they  could 
have  a  door  in  it,  so  that  they  could  put  a  lock 
on  the  door,  so  that  they  could  have  a  key  to 
the  lock,  so  that  somebody  could  keep  the 
key  to  lend,  so  that  anybody  who  borrowed 
it  could  give  a  little  tip  when  he  brought  it 
back. 

Before  I  go  any  further  I  want  to  explain 
one  little  thing.  This  Tintagel  Head,  where 
we  were  now,  is  a  great,  dome-like  mass  of 
rock,  standing  up  out  of  the  sea,  with  just  the 
narrow,  rocky  ridge  that  I  spoke  of  before  to 
hold  it  to  the  mainland.  Everybody  at  Tin- 
tagel calls  it "  the  island,"  and  I  call  it  so  some- 
times, because  that  is  an  easy  name  for  it.  But 
it  is  not  really  an  island,  and  I  explain  this  to 
you,  because,  when  you  go  to  Tintagel  your- 
self, I  don't  want  you  to  say  that  I  deceived 
you  about  it. 

We  thought  that  the  part  of  the  castle  that 
we  found  here  was  even  more  interesting  than 
the  part  over  on  the  mainland.  In  some  places 
the  walls  had  been  levelled  to  the  ground,  but 
we  could  trace  their  foundations  and  see  where 
rooms  had  been.  Tiny  rooms  they  must  have 
been,  too,  some  of  them.  Then  we  found  what 


226         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

seemed  to  have  been  a  court-yard.  There  was 
a  beautiful  bit  of  old  wall  at  one  side  of  it,  with 
ramparts  like  a  flight  of  stairs.  On  another 
side  the  wall  was  the  natural  rock  of  the  island. 
Far  down  below  us,  close  to  the  edge  of  the 
water,  there  was  another  wall,  with  a  door  in 
it.  We  felt  sure  that  this  must  have  been 
where  Tristram  and  Isolt  landed,  when  they 
came  from  Ireland.  We  did  not  dare  to  go 
down  to  it.  The  hill  was  so  steep  that  we  were 
afraid  that  if  we  once  started  down  it  we  could 
not  stop,  and  then  we  might  miss  our  aim  and 
go  into  the  water,  instead  of  against  the  wall. 

So  we  climbed  up,  instead  of  down,  and 
strolled  about  the  island.  A  little  way  from 
the  castle  we  found  a  place  like  a  long,  narrow 
room,  with  a  wall  around  it.  The  wall  was  no 
higher  than  the  ground  outside,  but  inside  the 
ground  was  a  little  lower.  There  was  a  door 
at  one  end,  and  at  the  other  end  there  was  a 
flat  stone,  raised  up  like  a  table.  This  room 
was  the  chapel  of  the  castle,  and  the  flat  stone 
was  the  altar.  We  stood  before  it  and  tried  to 
think  how  it  looked  here  on  that  day  when 
King  Uther  Pendragon  and  Ygerne  stood  be- 
fore this  altar  and  were  married.  Here  stood 
Uther,  a  true  king  of  those  rough  old  days,  not 
a  bit  the  less  happy  because  he  had  killed  this 
woman's  husband  only  a  few  days  before. 
Here  stood  Ygerne,  thinking  more  about  the 


Some  Little  Adventures  of  Lancelot  227 

Duke  who  had  been  her  husband  than  about 
the  King  who  was  to  be,  letting  herself  be  mar- 
ried to  him,  just  because  her  friends  thought 
that  they  should  all  be  safer  so,  yet  not  seeing 
anything  so  very  strange  in  it  all,  because  she 
belonged  to  those  same  rough  old  days  too. 
And  there  were  the  King's  men,  glad  of  it  all  be- 
cause it  made  the  King  happy,  and  the  Duke's 
men,  ready,  now  that  he  was  dead,  to  be  just  as 
true  to  the  King  as  they  had  ever  been  to  the 
Duke. 

We  found  the  graveyard  of  the  castle,  too, 
and  the  place  that  they  call  King  Arthur's  Seat. 
It  is  like  a  double  throne,  strangely  hollowed 
out  of  the  rock,  looking  toward  the  land.  It  was 
not  a  comfortable  place  to  sit,  and  we  found 
a  much  better  one  on  the  other  side  of  the 
island.  There  we  sat  in  the  grass  and  looked 
out  over  the  bright  sea,  down  toward  the 
Land's  End  and  Lyonnesse  again,  and  across  to 
the  west,  over  the  way  that  Tristram  and 
Isolt  had  sailed  here  together.  And  we  sat  so 
still  that  the  sheep  came  and  fed  near  us,  and 
the  sea-gulls  circled  about,  with  their  queer, 
sharp  little  cries,  and  shot  past  us  so  close,  some- 
times, that  it  seemed  as  if  we  could  almost 
reach  out  and  touch  them. 

"  Once  upon  a  time,"  I  said,  "  Lancelot  rode 
through  the  street  of  the  village  where  we 
walked  a  little  while  ago.  As  he  passed,  the 


228        The  'Court  of  King  Arthur 

people  called  to  him  and  told  him  to  turn  back 
and  go  no  nearer  to  the  castle.  If  he  went 
there,  they  said,  he  would  surely  be  killed  by 
the  two  giants  who  lived  there. 

"  I  don't  know  how  the  castle  happened  to  ! 
belong  to  these  giants.  Long  ago  it  belonged 
to  Gorlois,  the  Duke  of  Cornwall,  and  after 
that  to  Uther  Pendragon.  Then  King  Mark 
had  it,  and  I  can't  quite  make  out  when  these 
giants  got  it  or  how.  But  you  see  that  there 
are  so  many  of  these  different  stories  that  when 
two  of  them  are  brought  together  they  some- 
times disagree  as  badly  as  the  knights  usually 
did  when  they  were  brought  together. 

"  Of  course  you  know,  without  being  told, 
that  Lancelot  was  not  very  likely  to  turn  back 
just  because  somebody  told  him  that  he  would 
get  killed  if  he  went  on.  The  men  who  got  on 
well  in  those  days  were  the  ones  who  dashed 
straight  at  things  and  went  through  them,  with- 
out thinking  anything  about  getting  killed  or 
not  getting  killed. 

"  So  Lancelot  rode  on  to  the  castle,  and  in  at 
the  little  arched  gateway,  over  there  on  the 
mainland.  Then,  as  soon  as  he  had  passed  it, 
the  gate  fell  behind  him,  and  he  could  not  have 
gone  back  if  he  would.  But  he  did  not  care 
about  going  back.  When  Lancelot  had  any 
fighting  to  do,  what  he  wanted  was  a  good 
place  to  fight,  not  a  good  place  to  run  away. 


Some  Little  Adventures  of  Lancelot  229 

He  thought  that  the  court  of  the  castle  looked 
like  a  good  place,  and  he  had  no  more  than 
made  up  his  mind  to  that  when  he  saw  the 
giants  coming. 

w  Have  you  ever  noticed,  when  people  kill 
giants  in  stories,  what  quick  work  they  gener- 
ally make  of  it?  I  suppose  it  has  to  be  that 
way.  If  the  giant  got  a  chance  to  strike  one 
or  two  fair  blows  at  his  enemy,  no  doubt  that 
would  be  the  end  of  the  fight  and  the  giant 
would  not  get  killed  at  alL  And  giants  seem 
to  depend  on  that,  for  yon  must  have  noticed, 
too,  that  they  seldom  fight  like  other  men,  and 
they  seldom  use  any  weapon  but  a  club.  Gi- 
ants are  a  stupid  lot,  and  if  they  cannot  crush 
their  enemies  all  at  once  they  are  done  for. 
Perhaps  I  might  worry  some  sort  of  moral  out 
of  that,  but  I  won't  bother  you  with  it. 

"So  one  of  these  two  giants  came  upon  Lan- 
celot and  aimed  a  blow  at  him  with  his  club. 
Lancelot  caught  it  on  his  shield  and  then 
struck  the  giant  on  the  head  with  his  sword 
and  killed  him.  When  the  other  giant  saw 
that  he  ran  away.  Of  course  he  could  not  run 
far,  and  he  must  have  wished  that  they  had 
not  been  in  such  a  hurry  about  dropping  the 
gate  so  that  Lancelot  could  not  get  out.  As 
it  was,  they  were  both  shut  in,  and  there  was 
nothing  for  Lancelot  to  do  but  to  run  after  the 
giant  and  kill  him.  And  that  he  did. 


230        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

"  Then  he  went  into  the  hall  of  the  castle, 
and  there  he  found  sixty  gentlewomen.  They 
told  him  that  the  giants  had  kept  them  prison- 
ers there  and  had  made  them  work  for  them. 
Some  of  them  had  been  there  for  seven  years, 
and  often  knights  had  come  and  had  tried  to 
kill  the  giants  and  to  set  them  free,  but  the 
giants  had  killed  them  all.  Lancelot  told  them 
that  they  were  all  free  now,  and  that  they 
could  take  all  the  treasure  that  the  giants  had 
piled  up  and  divide  it  among  themselves.  Of 
course  there  is  really  no  need  of  my  telling 
you  that,  because  that  was  what  people  who 
killed  giants  that  had  castles  always  did. 

"  Then  Lancelot  left  Tintagel  and  rode  for 
many  days  through  the  woods  and  over  hills 
and  valleys  and  across  rivers.  And  one  night 
he  came  to  a  house  where  an  old  woman  lived, 
and  he  asked  her  to  let  him  stay  till  morning. 
She  was  glad  to  have  him  stay,  and  when  it 
was  time  to  go  to  bed  she  took  him  to  a  room 
above  the  gate.  There  Lancelot  laid  his  armor 
beside  his  bed  and  went  to  sleep.  But  he  had 
not  slept  long  when  he  was  awakened  by  a 
great  knocking  at  the  gate. 

"  Lancelot  jumped  out  of  bed  and  went  to 
the  window,  and  there,  just  below  him,  he  saw 
a  knight  knocking  with  the  hilt  of  his  sword, 
and  not  far  off  came  three  other  knights,  riding 
toward  him.  Then  the  three  knights  attacked 


Some  Little  Adventures  of  Lancelot   231 

the  one  who  was  at  the  gate  with  their  swords, 
all  at  once,  while  he  set  his  back  Jgaia&i  the 
wall  and  fought  with  them  the  best  he  could. 

"Now  this  was  not  at  all  Lancelot's  notion 
of  a  fair  fight,  so  he  quickly  put  on  his  armor, 
took  a  sheet  from  the  bed,  fastened  it  at  the 
window,  and  let  himself  down  by  it  out- 
side, Then  he  called  to  the  three  knights  to 
leave  the  one  knight  and  come  and  fight  with 
him.  So  instantly  they  all  turned  upon  Lan- 
celot, for  they  seemed  to  have  no  notion  of 
fighting  with  less  than  three  men  to  one.  But 
fighting  with  Lancelot  was  a  very  different 
matter  from  fighting  with  the  other  knight. 
He  was  more  than  a  match  for  all  of  them,  and 
when  the  other  knight  tried  to  help  him  Lan- 
celot told  him  to  keep  away  and  let  him  fight 
alone.  And  the  other  knight,  seeing  that  Lan- 
celot was  doing  very  well  without  him,  kept 
away. 

"  Of  course  they  were  not  very  good  fighters, 
or  they  would  fight  a  single  enemy  one  at  a 
time,  like  good  knights,  and  so  it  was  not  long 
before  Lancelot  had  them  all  down  on  the 
ground  and  at  his  mercy.  They  all  begged 
him  not  to  kill  them  and  said  that  they  would 
give  themselves  up  to  him  and  do  whatever  he 
told  them.  Lancelot  had  time  now  to  look  at 
the  knight  whom  he  had  helped,  and  he  saw  bj 
his  armor  and  his  shield  that  he  was  Sir  Kay. 


232         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

'  You  shall  not  give  yourselves  up  to  me,'  said 
Lancelot,  '  but  to  Sir  Kay.  Yield  to  him  or  I 
will  not  spare  your  lives.' 

" '  We  cannot  yield  to  him,'  they  said,  '  for 
we  should  have  beaten  him  but  for  you.  We 
will  give  ourselves  to  you,  but  not  to  him.' 

"'Yield  to  Sir  Kay,'  said  Lancelot  again, 
'  or  I  shall  not  let  you  live.' 

"  So  the  three  knights  saw  that  there  was 
nothing  to  do  but  just  what  Lancelot  said,  and 
they  answered  that  rather  than  die  they  would 
yield  to  Sir  Kay.  Then  Lancelot  commanded 
them  to  go  to  the  court  of  King  Arthur  and 
say  to  Queen  Guinevere  that  Sir  Kay  had  sent 
them  to  be  her  prisoners. 

"  The  knights  rode  way  and  Lancelot  and 
Kay  knocked  again  at  the  door  till  the  old 
woman  came  and  opened  it  for  them.  She  was 
surprised  enough  to  see  Lancelot  there,  because 
she  had  left  him  only  a  little  while  before  in 
his  room  and  the  door  had  not  been  opened 
since.  She  led  Lancelot  back  to  the  room  over 
the  gate,  and  Kay  with  him,  and  there  they 
both  went  to  sleep.  In  the  morning  Lancelot 
was  awake  before  Kay.  He  got  up,  dressed 
himself  in  Kay's  armor,  took  Kay's  shield, 
found  his  horse,  and  rode  away,  without  say- 
ing a  word  to  anybody. 

"  Then  Kay  awoke  and  found  that  Lancelot 
was  gone,  and  that  his  own  armor  and  shield 


Some  Little  Adventures  of  Lancelot  233 

were  gone,  too,  but  there  were  Lancelot's  lying 
beside  the  bed.  '  I  see  why  he  has  done  this,' 
said  Kay  to  himself.  '  He  is  fonder  of  fighting 
than  I  am,  and  when  other  knights  see  him  in 
my  armor  they  will  think  that  it  is  I  and  they 
will  all  want  to  fight  with  him,  and  he  will  beat 
them.  And  it  will  be  all  the  better  for  me  too, 
for  when  they  see  me  wearing  his  armor  they 
will  think  that  I  am  Lancelot,  and  they  will  let 
me  alone,  so  that  I  can  go  safely  wherever  I 
please.' 

"  It  was  just  as  Kay  thought.  Every  knight 
whom  Lancelot  met  thought  that  he  was  Kay 
and  wanted  to  fight  with  him.  And  Lancelot 
beat  every  one  of  them  and  ordered  them  to  go 
to  the  court  of  King  Arthur  and  tell  Queen 
Guinevere  that  Sir  Kay  had  sent  them  to  be 
her  prisoners.  And  when  one  knight  after  an- 
other kept  coming  to  the  court  and  saying  that 
Sir  Kay  had  beaten  him  and  sent  him  there,  the 
King  and  the  Queen  and  everybody  else  began 
to  think  that  Kay  must  be  a  better  fighter  than 
they  had  ever  believed  that  he  was.  And  all 
the  time  the  real  Kay  was  riding  about  and 
never  having  to  fight  at  all,  and  everybody 
was  getting  out  of  his  way,  because  everybody 
thought  that  he  was  Lancelot. 

"  And  when  Lancelot  had  ridden  for  many 
days  and  was  far  away  from  the  court,  one  day 
in  the  woods  he  met  a  dog,  which  leaped  about 


234         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

him  and  then  ran  away,  and  came  back  and 
ran  around  him  again  and  then  away,  as  if  it 
wanted  Lancelot  to  follow  it.  So  Lancelot  fol- 
lowed, and  the  dog  led  the  way  through  the 
dark  wood  and  across  a  boggy  plain  till  they 
came  to  a  house.  The  house  was  old.  The 
stones  of  it  were  covered  with  moss  and  some 
of  them  had  fallen  away,  and  the  broken  pieces 
of  them,  covered  with  moss,  too,  lay  around 
the  walls.  There  was  a  moat  and  there  was  a 
bridge  across  it.  The  bridge  was  old,  too,  and 
as  Lancelot  crossed  it  he  heard  it  crack  under 
his  horse's  feet. 

"  He  left  his  horse  and  went  into  the  hall, 
and  there,  in  the  middle  of  it,  he  saw  a  knight 
lying  dead.  Then  a  woman  came  and  said  to 
him :  '  Oh,  knight,  you  have  done  me  great 
wrong,  for  you  have  killed  my  husband  ! ' 

" '  Is  this  your  husband  who  lies  here  ? '  said 
Lancelot.  '  I  did  not  kill  him,  and  I  am  sorry 
that  you  have  lost  him.' 

" '  Not  you  then,  perhaps,'  the  woman  an- 
swered, '  but  it  was  a  knight  of  your  Round 
Table.' 

"  '  If  it  was  any  knight  of  the  Round  Table 
who  killed  your  husband,'  Lancelot  said,  '  I  am 
sure  that  it  was  in  a  fair  fight.  I  am  sorry  for 
you,  but  any  knight  may  chance  to  be  killed  so. 
What  was  your  husband's  name?' 

" '  He  was  Sir  Gilbert,'  she  said,  '  and  one  of 


Some  Little  Adventures  of  Lancelot   235 

the  best  knights  in  the  world,  and  I  do  not 
know  the  name  of  the  knight  who  killed  him.' 

"  Then  Lancelot  rode  away,  across  the  old, 
shaking  bridge  again,  across  the  wide  bog  and 
into  the  forest.  And  there  he  met  a  girl  who 
said  to  him  :  '  Come,  Sir  Knight,  and  help  my 
brother,  who  is  in  a  castle  near  here,  wounded.' 

"  *  Who  is  your  brother,'  Lancelot  asked, 
'  and  how  shall  I  help  him  ? ' 

" '  He  is  a  knight  of  the  Round  Table,'  she 
said.  '  He  fought  with  Sir  Gilbert  to-day  a 
fair  battle  and  killed  him  ;  but  my  brother  was 
wounded  too,  so  that  he  will  die  if  he  does  not 
have  help.  There  is  a  woman  near  here  who 
knows  magic,  and  she  says  that  his  wounds 
cannot  be  cured  unless  they  are  touched  with 
Sir  Gilbert's  sword  and  with  a  piece  of  the 
bloody  cloth  that  Sir  Gilbert  is  wrapped  in. 
They  are  in  the  Chapel  Perilous,  where  Sir 
Gilbert's  body  lies,  and  my  brother  will  die 
soon  unless  some  knight  can  go  there  and  bring 
them  to  him.' 

" '  I  will  bring  them,'  said  Lancelot ;  '  where 
is  the  Chapel  Perilous  ?  ' 

"  She  pointed  the  way  and  said  :  '  Bring  them 
quickly,  Sir  Knight,  and  meet  me  here,  or  my 
brother  will  die.' 

"  So  Lancelot  rode  away  and  came  soon  to 
the  Chapel  Perilous.  It  stood  in  a  yard  with  a 
wall  around  it.  Lancelot  left  his  horse  at  the 


236         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

gate  and  went  into  the  yard,  and  there,  before 
the  door  of  the  chapel,  were  thirty  knights. 
They  were  all  giants,  half  as  tall  again  as  com- 
mon men.  The  visors  of  their  helmets  were 
open  and  Lancelot  could  see  their  faces.  They 
were  hard,  pale  faces,  with  deep-sunken  black 
eyes  and  cruel  mouths.  Their  armor  was  all 
black,  and  they  all  had  great  black  shields,  and 
drawn  swords  in  their  hands. 

"  Lancelot  put  his  own  shield  before  him  and 
drew  his  sword,  and  went  straight  toward  the 
door  of  the  chapel.  The  giant  knights  rushed 
toward  him  and  struck  at  him  with  their  swords, 
but  when  he  was  close  to  them  they  all  fell  back 
to  right  and  left  and  let  him  pass,  and  not  one 
of  their  swords  touched  him.  They  were  en- 
chanted knights  and  they  could  harm  only  a 
man  who  was  afraid  of  them.  You  may  find, 
sometime,  when  troubles  or  dangers  seem  to  be 
all  around  you,  that  the  best  thing  to  do  is  to 
throw  your  shield  before  you  and  take  your 
sword  in  your  hand,  and  walk  through  them 
and  fear  nothing. 

"  So  Lancelot  came  into  the  chapel.  There 
was  no  light  except  from  one  little  lamp,  and 
when  his  eyes  had  grown  used  to  the  darkness 
he  saw  Sir  Gilbert  lying  just  as  he  had  left  him 
lying  in  the  old  house.  He  could  not  guess 
how  he  had  come  here,  but  everything  here 
seemed  to  be  enchantment,  and  Lancelot  felt 


Some  Little  Adventures  of  Lancelot   237 

that  he  scarcely  knew  whether  there  had  ever 
been  an}'  Sir  Gilbert  really,  or  whether  he  was 
some  ghost  or  strange  fairy,  or  perhaps  nothing 
at  all  but  a  part  of  the  magic  of  the  place.  But 
he  went  to  the  dead  knight  and  cut  off  a  piece 
of  the  cloth  that  he  was  wrapped  in,  and  as  he 
did  it  the  earth  shook  under  him.  Then  he 
took  the  sword  that  lay  beside  the  dead  knight 
and  went  out  of  the  chapel. 

"  And  as  he  came  out  all  the  giant  knights 
called  to  him  :  '  Sir  Lancelot,  Sir  Lancelot,  put 
down  that  sword  or  you  shall  die  ! ' 

"  And  Lancelot  answered  :  '  Take  the  sword 
from  me  if  you  can  ;  I  shall  not  give  it  to  you 
for  asking.'  And  he  walked  safely  among  them, 
as  he  had  done  before,  and  mounted  his  horse 
and  rode  back  to  find  the  girl. 

"  And  the  girl  cried  with  joy  when  she  saw 
him,  and  she  led  him  quickly  to  the  castle 
where  her  brother  was.  The  wounded  knight 
was  so  weak  that  he  could  scarcely  speak,  and 
he  was  pale  from  the  blood  that  he  had  lost, 
but  as  soon  as  Lancelot  saw  him  he  knew  him — 
a  good  knight  whom  he  had  seen  often  in  King 
Arthur's  court.  The  knight  knew  him,  too. 
'  Sir  Lancelot,'  he  said, '  can  you  help  me  ?  I 
feel  that  I  cannot  live  much  longer.' 

"  Then  Lancelot  touched  the  knight's  wounds 
with  Sir  Gilbert's  sword  and  with  the  cloth, 
and  in  an  instant  they  were  all  healed.  The 


238         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

color  of  his  face  and  his  strength  came  back, 
too,  and  he  rose  from  where  he  had  been  lying 
and  thanked  Lancelot  for  saving  his  life.  '  To- 
night,' said  Lancelot,  '  I  will  stay  here  with 
you  ;  to-morrow  I  must  go  farther  on  my  way ; 
but  you  go  with  your  sister  to  the  court  and 
tell  the  King  and  the  Queen  that  I  shall  see 
them  and  you  there  soon.'  " 


CHAPTER  XII 
THE  CHIME  OF  THE  SEA 

THE  next  day  was  Sunday.  After  break- 
fast we  found  that  we  had  time  to  take  a  little 
stroll  before  going  to  church.  We  always  felt 
tempted  to  go  toward  the  castle,  and  so  we 
did  this  time.  But  we  did  not  go  into  it. 
When  we  came  near  the  shore  we  found  that 
the  tide  was  out  and  we  thought  that  it  would 
be  worth  while  to  explore  the  shore  itself  a 
little. 

We  went  down  among  the  broken  rocks  in 
the  little  bay  on  one  side  of  the  neck  between 
the  mainland  and  the  island,  and  we  found  noth- 
ing there  to  interest  us  very  much.  Still,  rocks 
and  waves  are  never  dull,  and  it  was  something 
to  look  up  at  the  towering  height  above  us  and 
see  how  the  masses  of  slate  must  have  fallen 
away  from  it  sometime  long  ago,  carrying  a 
part  of  the  castle  with  them.  The  giants,  if 
they  were  giants,  who  built  the  castle  of  Tinta- 


240        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

gel,  built  it  so  that  it  was  safe  from  men.  They 
made  it  of  the  same  stone  that  it  stood  upon, 
and  they  made  it  so  big  and  strong,  and  they 
chose  its  place  so  well,  that  no  army  of  their 
days  could  ever  take  it.  Yet  all  around  it  were 
the  water  and  the  wind,  and  they  could  do 
what  the  men  could  not.  The  men  had  not 
time  to  take  Tintagel,  for  they  must  rest  and 
sleep  and  die.  But  the  water  and  the  wind 
never  died,  and  they  seldom  slept  or  rested. 
Time  was  nothing  to  them.  The  castle  grew 
old,  and  still  they  were  as  young  as  they  were 
at  first.  It  was  nothing  to  them  that  the  castle 
was  built  of  the  same  rock  that  it  stood  upon. 
The  water  beat  and  dashed  against  the  rock  it- 
self, and  the  wind  caught  the  water  and  hurled 
it  as  high  as  the  castle  towers.  Year  after  year 
they  wore  them  away  by  little  and  little,  and 
then  all  at  once  a  great  mass  of  the  rock  and 
the  castle  would  fall  With  a  crash  that  must 
have  echoed  for  miles  along  the  shore.  And 
so  at  last  they  have  left  them  as  we  see  them 
now.  No,  not  left  them,  for  the  wind  and  the 
water  are  working  at  them  still,  and  the  time 
will  come  when  there  will  not  be  so  much  as  a 
heap  of  dust  to  show  where  this  grand  old  cas- 
tle stood.  Do  they  call  the  rocks  and  the  hills 
eternal  ?  There  is  nothing  eternal  on  earth  but 
the  sea  and  the  wind. 

We  clambered  back  over  the  rocky  isthmus, 


The  Chime  of  the  Sea  241 

and  went  down  upon  the  little  beach  on  the 
other  side,  and  into  the  big  cave  that  is  there. 
This  cave  is  a  tunnel  that  goes  clear  through 
Tintagel  head,  right  under  the  castle.  It  is 
one  of  the  wonderful  things  that  the  wind 
and  the  waves  have  done  all  along  this  coast. 
The  great  winter  storms  come  driving  across 
the  Atlantic  and  strike  with  all  their  force 
against  Cornwall.  If  Cornwall  had  not  this 
wall  of  rock  it  would  all  go  down  under  the 
water  as  Lyonnesse  did.  As  it  is,  the  constant 
beating  and  dashing  of  the  waves  and  the 
showering  of  the  spray  carve  the  rocks  into 
all  sorts  of  strange  and  fine  and  fantastic  shapes, 
pillars  and  points  and  domes  and  cracks  and 
hollows  and  caves.  We  went  into  this  one  till 
we  came  to  a  lake  that  spread  clear  across  it, 
and  then,  as  we  were  not  prepared  to  wade,  we 
turned  back  and  found  that  it  was  time  to  go  to 
church. 

The  Tintagel  church  is  worth  seeing,  too. 
It  is  high  up  on  a  bluff,  where  it  looks  far  out 
over  the  sea  and  over  the  land.  It  is  built  as 
strong  as  a  castle  and  it  has  lasted  better,  for  it 
is  a  thousand  years  old.  They  have  kept  it  in 
repair,  no  doubt,  but  there  is  another  reason 
why  it  has  stood  firm  while  the  castle  has  been 
wasted  and  worn  away.  That  reason  is  that 
they  did  not  try  so  hard  to  make  U  safe.  They 
thought  that  enemies  would  come  against  their 


242        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

castle,  and  so,  to  defend  it  more  easily,  they 
perched  it  on  the  very  edges  of  that  deep, 
steep  chasm.  But  they  feared  no  enemies  for 
their  church,  so  they  put  it  where  the  waves 
and  the  wind  did  not  harm  it,  all  the  time  that 
they  were  slowly  grinding  the  castle  to  dust. 
Yet  they  built  it  to  last,  for,  though  it  is  not 
large,  it  has  walls  like  a  fortress  and  windows 
that  are  only  slits  in  the  walls  outside  and 
widen  to  the  size  of  common  windows  inside. 
They  look  as  if  they  were  made  to  shoot  arrows 
through,  but  they  are  built  so  only  to  give  light 
without  any  loss  of  strength. 

"  Firm  was  their  faith,  the  ancient  bands, 
The  wise  of  heart  in  wood  and  stone, 
Who  reared  with  stern  and  trusty  hands 
These  dark  gray  towers  of  days  unknown." 

A  priest  who  lived  a  sweet,  simple,  noble  life 
a  few  miles  away  on  this  coast,  wrote  these 
lines  about  his  own  church,  but  they  are  just  as 
true  of  the  church  of  Tintagel. 

After  church  and  after  dinner  we  set  out  for 
a  real  walk.  We  were  going  to  Boscastle,  five 
miles  up  the  shore.  Everybody  said  that  if  we 
were  going  to  Boscastle  we  must  walk  there, 
or  we  should  lose  all  the  beauty  of  the  scenery 
along  the  coast.  It  was  not  easy  walking,  for 
the  shore  of  Cornwall  is  shaped  like  the  edge 
of  a  saw,  turned  up.  We  were  seldom  on  level 


*- 

THE  ROOtS  OF  TKVTAGEL 


The  Chime  of  the  Sea  243 

ground,  but  always  going  down  a  hill  and  then 
up  another  hill,  so  that  we  could  go  down  again 
on  the  other  side,  and  so  on  for  mile  after  mile. 
And  once  we  came  to  a  wonderful,  wide,  deep 
gorge,  with  a  little  brook  running  along  the 
bottom  of  it  and  all  its  sides  covered  with  tall 
ferns.  There  were  high  rocks,  too,  and  we  had 
to  get  into  the  shelter  of  one  of  them  while  a 
little  shower  passed  over  us.  The  place,  as  we 
found  out  afterward,  is  called  the  Valley  of 
Rocks. 

But  I  am  not  going  to  try  to  tell  you  much 
about  that  walk.  It  takes  a  better  writer  than 
I  am  to  tell  about  scenery  so  as  to  do  any  good 
to  anybody  who  has  not  seen  it.  There  were 
the  spires  and  the  towers  and  the  arches  of  the 
rocks,  and  there  were  the  soft,  fresh  green  and 
brown  of  the  fields,  after  the  little  rain,  and 
again  the  bright  blue  and  yellow  and  scarlet  of 
the  flowers,  and  the  shining  blue  and  gray  of 
the  sea.  There  were  the  pure,  sweet  air,  and 
the  strong,  free  breeze,  and  it  was  all  very 
grand  and  very  lovely. 

Hundreds  of  sea-gulls  flew  around  us,  and 
whirled,  screaming,  past  us,  and  thousands  of 
sea-gulls  whitened  the  rocks  where  they  lived. 
And  now  and  then  some  ravens  would  flutter 
above  our  heads  for  a  moment  and  then  sail 
away  again.  "  Look  well  at  the  ravens,"  I  said, 
"  for  you  may  be  looking  at  King  Arthur." 


244         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

Instead  of  looking  at  the  ravens  Helen 
looked  at  me.  "  You  know  the  guard  on  the 
coach  told  us,"  I  said,  "  that  King  Arthur  was 
killed  in  battle  at  Slaughter  Bridge,  and  you 
know  I  told  you  that  I  did  not  know  whether 
he  was  killed  or  not.  One  of  the  old  stories, 
as  you  know,  says  that  he  and  his  knights  are 
sleeping  down  under  the  ground  at  Caerleon, 
and  that  they  will  come  back  sometime  to  save 
England  when  she  needs  them  most.  Then 
there  is  the  one  that  says  that  he  is  waiting  for 
his  time  in  the  happy  valley  of  Avalon.  But 
another  story  says  that  instead  of  dying  at  last 
King  Arthur  was  changed  into  a  raven,  and 
that  he  still  lives  and  flies  around  this  Cornish 
coast.  And  just  because  of  this  it  used  to  be 
said  that  no  Cornishman  and  no  Englishman 
would  ever  kill  a  raven,  for  fear  that  he  might 
kill  King  Arthur. 

"  Some  people  would  call  that  a  superstition, 
no  doubt,  but  if  it  is,  then  it  is  a  very  good 
and  pretty  and  harmless  one.  And  could  you 
believe  it,  if  I  told  you  that  these  same  people 
once  believed  one  of  the  wickedest  and  cruel- 
est  of  superstitions — one  that  often  made  them 
act  like  cowards  and  almost  thieves?  It  was 
not  so  very  long  ago,  either. 

"  Look  out  on  that  ocean.  See  how  high 
the  waves  are.  Hear  them  dashing  and 
breaking  down  there  at  the  foot  of  the  cliffs. 


The  Chime  of  the  Sea  245 

See  how  they  throw  their  spray  over  the 
broken  rocks.  And  see  how  jagged  and  sharp 
and  rough  the  rocks  themselves  are.  Feel 
how  strong  this  breeze  is,  that  blows  in  from 
the  sea.  And  yet  this  is  a  warm,  calm,  bright 
summer  day.  Now  try  to  think  of  a  cold, 
rough  day  in  winter,  with  a  great  storm  blow- 
ing in  from  the  sea.  Think  of  the  waves  a 
dozen  times  as  high.  Think  of  them  thunder- 
ing on  the  cliffs  and  hurling  their  foam  high 
above  them  and  over  them.  Think  of  them 
pounding  and  crashing  on  these  jagged,  broken 
rocks  with  a  power  that  we  cannot  compare 
with  any  other  in  the  world.  Think  of  the 
wind  rushing  over  this  place  where  we  are  so 
that  we  could  not  stand  against  it  for  a  mo- 
ment. Can  you  imagine  what  it  would  all  be 
like  ?  I  am  afraid  neither  of  us  can. 

"  But  I  do  know  that  for  the  ships  that  pass 
this  is  one  of  the  most  terrible  coasts  in  the 
world.  Every  winter  there  are  wrecks,  and 
sometimes  there  are  many  of  them.  A  ship 
strikes  among  these  rocks,  she  never  can  get 
off  again,  and  in  a  little  while — only  a  few 
hours,  perhaps — she  is  ground  to  pieces.  Un- 
less the  men  on  board  get  help  from  the  shore 
they  may  all  be  drowned  and  some  of  them 
are  almost  sure  to  be.  And  yet,  only  a  few 
generations  ago,  the  people  of  this  shore  used 
to  stand  on  these  rocks  and  watch  ships  while 


246         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

they  went  to  pieces,  and  men  while  they 
drowned,  and  never  lift  a  hand  to  help  them. 
And  why,  do  you  suppose  ?  Because  of  a  be- 
lief among  them  that  a  stranger  saved  from 
the  sea  would  sometime  do  an  injury  to  those 
who  had  saved  him.  It  is  all  changed  now, 
and  the  men  of  Cornwall  try  to  save  ship- 
wrecked sailors,  and  do  save  them,  as  if  they 
were  their  own  brothers,  and  there  are  no 
braver  or  hardier  men  in  the  world  than  they. 
But  there  are  men  living  near  here  to-day,  I 
have  no  doubt,  who  can  remember  when  a  ship 
was  wrecked  only  a  few  miles  up  this  coast  and 
a  rocket  was  fired  over  her,  and  a  line  secured, 
and  every  one  on  board  might  have  been  saved, 
when  someone  on  the  shore  cut  the  line  and 
only  one  man  from  the  ship  was  saved. 

"  Some  say  that  this  cruel  belief  was  kept 
alive  because  so  many  of  the  people  made  a 
great  part  of  their  living  by  picking  up  things 
that  were  washed  ashore  from  the  cargoes  of 
wrecked  ships,  and  they  did  not  want  the  men 
to  be  kept  alive  to  claim  the  goods.  This  may 
be  partly  true  ;  but,  horrible  and  wicked  as  the 
superstition  was,  I  think  that  they  really  be- 
lieved it.  And  I  think  this  and  I  think  the 
more  kindly  of  them,  because  of  that  other 
superstition  that  they  must  not  kill  a  raven 
lest  they  should  kill  King  Arthur.  They  could 
not  have  been  wholly  cruel  at  heart." 


The  Chime  of  the  Sea  247 

There  is  not  much  that  I  need  to  tell  you 
about  Boscastle.  It  is  a  queer-looking  little 
place,  and  pretty,  too — a  few  houses  in  a  clus- 
ter, struck  down  into  a  crack  between  two 
cliffs,  with  a  crooked  little  harbor.  The  best 
thing  about  it  is  the  walk  to  it  from  Tintagel. 
But  when  we  had  walked  through  the  village 
and  left  it  behind  us,  and  came  to  the  church 
up  on  the  higher  ground  of  the  road  back  to 
Tintagel,  I  did  think  of  something  that  I  wanted 
to  say. 

"  I  don't  know,"  I  began,  "  whether  this 
church  is  quite  as  old  as  the  one  at  Tintagel, 
where  we  were  this  morning,  or  not.  I  fancy 
it  is  not,  but  it  is  pretty  old.  And  there  is  an 
old  story  about  the  two  churches.  You  don't 
happen  to  know,  I  suppose,  that  the  church  at 
Tintagel  has  five  bells  in  its  tower.  A  peal  of 
bells,  they  are  called,  and  they  are  said  to  be 
very  fine  and  sweet  in  tone.  I  can't  say  posi- 
tively, because  I  have  not  heard  them  ring 
yet.  But  the  bells  were  there  a  long  time  ago, 
and  the  Tintagel  people  were  very  proud  ol 
them,  and  they  learned  to  love  them,  as  people 
do  learn  to  love  bells  more  than  almost  any- 
thing else  that  is  not  alive.  They  called  them 
to  church  every  Sunday;  when  they  were 
married,  they  rang  for  them  and  seemed  to  be 
as  glad  and  happy  as  anybody.  When  any  of 
them  had  been  away  at  sea  they  heard  the  bells 


248         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

ring  sometimes,  as  they  came  toward  the 
shore,  and  the  music  made  them  feel,  more 
than  anything  else,  that  they  were  near  home 
again.  When  they  died,  the  bells  -tolled  for 
them.  And  when  they  heard  the  bells  tolling 
for  others,  the  thought  might  come  to  them 
that  even  if  all  their  other  friends  should  go 
before,  yet,  when  their  own  time  came,  the 
bells  would  still  be  as  strong  and  sound  as 
ever  and  would  be  sorry  that  they  were 
gone. 

"  But  in  the  tower  of  the  church  here  at  Bos- 
castle  there  were  no  bells.  Sometimes,  when 
the  wind  was  the  right  way  and  the  sea  was 
not  too  loud,  they  could  hear  the  bells  of  Tin- 
tagel,  and  then  their  own  tower  seemed  all  the 
more  silent  and  dull.  So  at  last  the  people  of 
Boscastle  resolved  that  they  would  have  some 
bells  as  good  as  those  of  Tintagel.  They  got 
some  money  together  and  sent  it  to  London  to 
have  the  bells  made.  The  bells  were  made  and 
put  on  board  a  ship  to  be  brought  to  Boscastle. 
The  ship  sailed  down  the  Thames  and  down 
the  Channel  and  around  the  Land's  End  and  so 
up  the  coast. 

"  The  Tintagel  bells  were  ringing  as  the  ship 
passed,  and  the  men  on  board  could  hear  them. 
The  pilot  was  a  Tintagel  man  and  the  bells  told 
him  that  he  was  near  home.  They  made  him 
think  of  his  wife  and  his  children,  waiting  for 


The  Chime  of  the  Sea  249 

him  up  there  in  the  little  village  on  the  hill, 
and  he  said  :  *  Thank  God,  we  are  near  the  har- 
bor and  shall  soon  be  safe  in  and  with  our 
friends  again.' 

"  The  captain  of  the  ship  heard  him  and  he 
said :  *  It  will  be  time  enough  to  thank  God 
when  we  get  on  shore ;  while  we  are  at  sea 
thank  the  good  ship  and  the  captain  that  rules 
her,  and  your  own  skill  that  steers  her.' 

" '  No,  no,'  the  pilot  answered ;  '  we  must 
thank  God  always ;  whatever  we  do  ourselves 
is  by  His  help.' 

"  '  When  you  are  on  my  ship,'  said  the  cap- 
tain, '  thank  me ;  that  is  enough.' 

"  And  just  as  the  captain  had  said  it,  out  of 
the  clear  sky  a  great  wind  struck  the  ship  and 
she  heeled  over,  and  the  water  rushed  over  her 
deck  and  she  filled.  There  was  a  cry  of  the 
men  for  help  and  one  fierce  jangle  of  the  bells, 
and  the  ship  went  down.  The  captain  was 
drowned,  but  the  pilot  was  saved,  and  whether 
the  other  men  were  drowned  or  saved  I  do  not 
know. 

"  And  so  the  bells  were  never  brought  to  Bos- 
castle,  and  for  many  years  the  tower  here  was 
silent  Some  one  tells  me  that  it  has  one  little 
bell  now,  but  it  has  no  peal  like  the  one  at  Tin- 
tagel.  But  they  say  that  sometimes,  when  the 
waves  are  high  and  the  storm-wind  is  blowing 
as  it  blew  when  that  ship  went  down,  the  gale 


250        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

that  comes  in  from  the  ocean  brings  a  sound  of 
bells.  And  then  the  people  of  Boscastle  listen 
and  say:  'Our  bells  are  ringing  down  under 
the  water  as  they  ought  to  have  rung  all  these 
years  in  our  silent  tower.'  " 


CHAPTER  XIII 
HOW  THE  SCABBARD  WAS  LOST 

WHEN  we  had  seen  Boscastle  we  thought  that 
we  had  had  enough  of  climbing  np  hills  and 
scrambling  down  on  the  other  side,  so  we  found 
a  carriage  to  take  us  back  to  TintageL  The 
road  was  back  some  waj  from  the  shore,  and 
so  it  was  reasonably  smooth  and  even  and  level 
for  the  most  of  the  waj.  As  we  passed  near 
the  Valley  of  Rocks  we  saw  a  sign-board  beside 
the  road.  It  said  that  if  we  wanted  to  see  St. 
Neighton's  Kieve  we  must  come  in  here  and 
go  op  to  the  other  end  of  the  meadow  to  a 
house  where  the  key  was  kept.  Some  one  had 
told  as  that  we  really  ought  to  see  St.  Neigh, 
ton's  Kieve,  so  the  next  day  we  decided  to  go 
and  borrow  the  key  and  see  ft. 

An  old  man  with  a  long  white  beard  and 
shaggy  white  eyebrows  lived  in  the  house 
where  the  key  was  kept  He  asked  us  to  sit 
down  and  rest  a  little  while  before  we  went  to 


252         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

see  St.  Neighton's  Kieve,  and  he  showed  us 
some  queer  old  carved  furniture  that  he  had. 
This  old  man's  eyebrows  reminded  me  of 
Yspaddaden  Penkawr's,  that  fell  down  over  his 
eyes  so  that  he  could  not  see,  for  this  man  did 
not  look  as  if  he  saw  us  at  all.  He  sat  before 
us  and  close  to  us,  but  his  eyes  seemed  to  be 
looking  down  at  the  floor  all  the  time,  and  he 
talked  in  a  voice  that  sounded  as  if  it  came 
from  the  next  room.  We  tried  to  get  him  to 
tell  us  some  of  the  stories  of  the  place,  but  he 
seemed  to  know  nothing  about  them.  He  did 
not  want  to  talk  about  Tintagel,  or  Boscastle, 
or  St.  Neighton's  Kieve.  He  wanted  to  talk 
about  America.  He  had  a  paper  with  pictures 
of  some  buildings  in  America  and  he  asked  us 
if  they  were  really  as  beautiful  as  they  looked 
in  the  pictures.  We  told  him  that  they  were 
much  more  so — that  he  could  not  think  how 
beautiful  they  were  unless  he  saw  them.  That 
was  really  true,  but  he  found  it  hard  to  believe. 
He  thought  that  America  must  be  a  wonderful 
country,  and  we  thought  so  too. 

Then  he  gave  us  the  key  and  a  printed  card 
to  tell  us  how  to  go,  and  we  set  out  to  discover 
St.  Neighton's  Kieve.  The  path  led  us  into  the 
Valley  of  Rocks  and  up  the  course  of  the  little 
brook  that  ran  at  the  bottom  of  it.  It  was  only 
a  little  way,  but  one  of  the  prettiest  walks  we 
had  ever  seen.  We  felt  grateful  to  the  stranger 


How  tJie  Scabbard  Was  Lost     253 

who  had  been  kind  enough  to  tell  us  we  must 
come  here.  We  crossed  the  brook  twice, 
went  up  a  little  hill  and  came  to  a  fence  with  a 
locked  door.  This  was  where  we  needed  the 
key.  We  went  through  the  gate  and  down  the 
hill  to  the  brook  again,  and  looked  up  at  a 
waterfall  that  came  down  in  two  leaps  from 
high  above  our  heads  and  fell  into  a  round 
basin  at  our  feet.  I  don't  know  much  about 
St.  Neighton,  but  kieve  is  an  old  Cornish  word 
that  means  tub,  so  this  was  St  Neighton's  Tub. 
When  we  had  stood  and  looked  at  it  for  a 
long  time  we  turned  away  and  went  up  the 
hill  again,  locked  the  gate  after  us,  and  took 
our  way  back  through  the  Valley  of  Rocks. 
And  now  we  looked  more  at  the  valley  than 
we  had  done  before.  It  was  a  strangely  beau- 
tiful place.  Sometimes  as  we  looked  down  the 
valley  we  could  see  nothing  but  ferns  on  either 
side,  or  perhaps  just  here  and  there  a  tree — 
steep,  high  banks  on  banks  of  ferns,  and  noth- 
ing else  in  sight.  The  ferns  that  grew  near  us 
were  often  as  high  as  our  heads,  and  sometimes 
we  could  even  stand  under  them,  while  they 
bent  the  tips  of  their  leaves  above  us  b'ke  trees. 
Then,  as  we  walked  farther  along,  we  could  see 
where  there  were  great  rocks,  high  up  on  the 
side  of  the  valley,  yet  even  these  were  covered 
with  green  vines,  so  that  not  a  bit  of  the  rock 
itself  could  be  seen.  It  was  as  if  there  had 


254        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

been  some  law  in  the  making  of  the  valley  that 
there  must  be  nothing  in  it  to  look  hard  or 
rough. 

"  I  have  never  seen  a  place,"  I  said,  "  except 
the  valley  of  our  own  Hudson,  that  looked  so 
much  like  a  home  for  fairies.  I  should  almost 
think  that  King  Arthur's  sister,  Queen  Morgan- 
le-Fay,  might  have  lived  here.  I  wonder  if  it 
was  not  here  that  she  came  to  learn  that  magic 
which  she  knew  so  well.  It  would  seem 
strange  that  any  one  should  learn  such  wicked 
magic  as  hers  in  such  a  beautiful  place  as  this. 
But  I  think  she  must  have  been  wicked  in  the 
first  place,  so  that  any  magic  or  anything  else 
that  she  could  learn  was  bound  to  turn  out 
evil.  I  don't  know  why  she  did  such  dreadful 
things,  or  why  she  hated  her  brother,  King  Ar- 
thur, so.  I  suppose  it  was  just  because  he  was 
good  and  she  was  bad." 

"  What  dreadful  things  did  she  do  ?  "  Helen 
asked. 

"  Well,  perhaps  the  very  worst  thing  that 
she  ever  did  was  to  try  to  kill  King  Arthur 
and  steal  his  sword  Excalibur.  You  remem- 
ber Merlin  told  Arthur  that  he  must  guard  the 
scabbard  of  Excalibur  more  than  anything  else 
that  he  had,  because  while  he  had  it  about  him 
he  could  lose  no  blood,  no  matter  how  much 
he  might  be  wounded.  Now  I  can't  think 
what  should  put  it  into  Arthur's  head  that  the 


How  the  Scabbard  Was  Lost     255 

best  way  to  keep  the  scabbard  safe  was  to  give 
it  to  his  sister,  Morgan-le-Fay,  to  keep  for  him. 
Of  course  he  did  not  know  how  wicked  she 
was  or  how  much  she  hated  him.  Still  I  don't 
know  why  he  should  not  keep  the  scabbard 
himself.  Or,  if  he  wanted  somebody  else  to 
look  after  it  for  him,  why  did  he  not  give  it  to 
Queen  Guinevere  ?  But  he  didn't ;  he  gave  it 
to  Morgan-le-Fay,  and  she  set  about  studying 
how  she  could  get  the  sword  as  well,  and  how 
she  could  kill  King  Arthur. 

"There  was  one  of  King  Arthur's  knights 
named  Sir  Accolon.  He  was  a  good  knight 
and  he  always  meant  to  do  what  was  right,  I 
suppose.  But  he  was  one  of  those  silly  fellows 
with  whom  a  beautiful  woman  can  always  do 
just  about  what  she  likes.  He  saw  Queen 
Morgan-le-Fay,  he  saw  how  beautiful  she  was, 
and  so  he  took  it  for  granted  that  everything 
that  she  did  or  said  or  thought  must  be  right. 
So  she  just  took  hold  of  him  and  did  what  she 
liked  with  him.  And  what  she  liked  was  to 
use  him  for  her  own  plans,  without  even  letting 
him  know  what  she  was  doing  or  what  he  was 
doing  himself.  If  she  had  let  him  know  what 
he  was  doing  I  don't  suppose  he  would  have 
done  it. 

.-Well,  it  happened  one  day  that  King  Ar- 
thur and  some  of  his  knights  were  hunting. 
And  King  Arthur  and  this  Sir  Accolon  and 


256        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

King  Urien,  the  husband  of  Morgan-le-Fay, 
followed  a  hart  till  they  were  far  away  from 
the  other  knights.  They  rode  so  far  and  so 
long  that  their  horses  grew  tired  and  could  not 
carry  them.  Then  they  got  off  their  horses 
and  went  a  little  way  on  foot,  till  they  saw  the 
hart,  not  far  before  them,  lying  on  the  bank  of 
a  broad  lake.  But  they  saw  something  else 
that  made  them  wonder  so  much  that  they  for- 
got about  the  hart. 

"  Out  on  the  lake  there  was  a  boat,  all  cov- 
ered with  silk  canopies  and  hangings  down  to 
the  edge  of  the  water.  It  was  coming  straight 
toward  them,  and  soon  it  touched  the  land  close 
to  where  they  were.  Then  Arthur  went  to  the 
boat  and  looked  in.  The  whole  of  it  seemed 
empty,  and  he  called  to  the  others  to  come  and 
look.  The  others  came,  and  they  all  went  into 
the  boat  and  looked  around  them,  wondering 
how  it  could  have  come  there  all  by  itself.  All 
about  them  there  were  rich  and  beautiful  silk 
curtains  and  cushioned  seats  and  heavy,  soft 
carpets,  but  no  people.  They  had  ridden  so 
long  in  the  hunt  that  evening  was  coming  on 
now,  when  all  at  once  the  whole  of  the  place 
where  they  were  was  lighted  up,  as  if  it  had 
been  noon.  Rows  of  torches,  that  they  had 
not  seen  before,  all  along  the  sides  of  the  boat, 
blazed  up  of  themselves  and  burned  with  soft- 
colored  lights.  And  a  thin  smoke  came  from 


How  the  Scabbard  Was  Lost     257 

them  and  spread  about  like  incense  and  filled 
the  place  with  perfume. 

"  They  had  scarcely  time  to  wonder  at  this 
when  there  came  twelve  girls,  who  knelt  be- 
fore the  King  and  called  him  by  name  and  wel- 
comed him  and  begged  him  to  stay  in  the  boat 
all  night  Then  they  opened  the  curtains  and 
led  the  three  knights  into  another  part  of  the 
boat,  where  there  was  a  table  richly  spread 
with  gold  and  silver  dishes  and  everything  that 
they  could  want  to  eat  and  drink.  The  twelve 
girls  served  them  while  they  ate,  and  then  they 
led  each  of  them  to  a  chamber,  as  rich  and 
beautiful  as  everything  else  had  been,  and  told 
them  to  sleep  there  till  morning.  And  as  soon 
as  each  of  the  three  knights  was  left  alone  the 
light  of  the  torches  grew  dimmer,  and  the 
incense  smoke  from  them  grew  heavier  and  the 
smell  of  it  sweeter,  and  they  all  slept. 

44  What  became  of  the  boat  after  that  nobody 
ever  knew,  except  Morgan-le-Fay  and  the  twelve 
girls  who  made  up  the  crew.  King  Urien 
awoke  in  the  morning  and  found  himself  in  his 
own  bed  at  Camelot.  But  King  Arthur  had  no 
such  good  fortune.  When  he  awoke  he  was 
lying  on  stone.  It  was  all  dark  around  him. 
He  felt  the  stone  on  which  he  lay  with  his 
hands.  It  was  smooth  and  it  had  lines  in  it, 
where  stones  were  fitted  together.  He  knew 
that  it  was  a  floor.  Then  he  reached  farther 


258        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

with  his  hands  and  touched  a  wall.  He  turned 
his  face,  and  up  above  him  and  a  little  way  off 
he  saw  a  square  spot  of  pale  light.  The  spot 
of  light  had  black  bars  across  it.  He  knew 
from  that  the  sort  of  place  that  he  was  in.  It 
was  a  prison.  Then  he  heard  sounds — a  groan 
—  a  deep,  long  sigh,  and  another  groan. 
'  Who  are  you,'  he  asked,  '  and  what  is  your 
trouble  ? ' 

"  There  was  no  answer  for  a  moment,  and 
then  a  voice  not  far  from  him  said  :  '  Who  are 
you  that  you  do  not  know  ?  We  are  knights — 
twenty  of  us.  We  have  been  here  for  years, 
some  of  us.  We  are  the  prisoners  of  Sir  Da- 
mas,  who  owns  this  castle,  and  you  must  be  his 
prisoner  too.' 

" '  Why  are  you  kept  here,'  the  King  asked, 
'  and  why  have  I  been  brought  here  ? ' 

" '  You  are  here,  it  is  likely,'  the  voice  an- 
swered, '  for  the  same  cause  as  the  rest  of  us. 
We  are  kept  here  because  we  will  not  fight  for 
this  Sir  Damas.  He  is  a  coward  and  does  not 
dare  to  fight  for  himself.  He  has  a  brother, 
Sir  Onzlake,  a  good  knight,  and  he  keeps  his 
rightful  possessions  from  him.  He  cannot  keep 
all,  for  Sir  Onzlake  is  as  brave  as  Sir  Damas  is 
cowardly,  and  he  has  one  good  castle  that  Sir 
Damas  cannot  take  from  him.  And  many 
times  Sir  Onzlake  has  offered  to  fight  with  Sir 
Damas  for  all  that  ought  to  be  his  without 


How  tke  Scabbard  Was  Lost      259 

fighting.  And  Sir  Damas  does  not  dare  to  try 
the  battle,  but  he  hopes  to  find  some  other 
knight  to  fight  it  for  him.  Bat  all  the  good 
knights  who  know  him  hate  him  so  that  they 
will  not  help  him,  so  he  and  his  men  watch  the 
roads  and  take  prisoners  the  knights  that  pass. 
Then  he  tries  to  make  them  fight  his  brother 
Sir  Onzlake  for  him,  and  when  they  refuse  he 
puts  them  here  in  this  prison.  This  is  how  we 
have  all  come  here,  for  we  will  die  rather  than 
fight  for  such  a  traitor.  And  some  of  us  have 
died  from  hunger  and  from  the  cold  and  damp 
of  the  dungeon.  This  is  why  you  are  here  too, 
no  doubt.  They  will  send  for  you  by  and  by, 
to  ask  you  if  you  will  fight  for  Sir  Damas.' 

"  Then  Arthur  thought  of  what  he  ought  to 
do.  '  If  I  say  that  I  will  not  fight  for  this  Sir 
Damas,'  he  thought,  *  he  will  keep  me  and  all 
these  poor  knights  here  till  we  die.  If  I  fight 
with  Onzlake  for  him  and  Onzlake  kills  me,  it 
will  be  no  worse  than  dying  in  this  prison,  and 
if  I  beat  Onzlake  I  will  not  kill  him,  and  then, 
because  I  am  the  King,  I  can  make  Sir  Damas 
give  his  brother  all  that  is  rightly  his,  and  I  can 
make  him  release  these  knights.' 

"  Then  the  little  spot  of  light  high  up  in  the 
wall  was  darkened,  and  Arthur  looked  up  there 
and  saw  the  face  of  a  girl,  looking  down  into 
the  dungeon.  'Knight,*  she  said,  'you  must 
fight  for  Sir  Damas  with  his  brother  Sir  Onz- 


260        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

lake,  or  you  will  never  come  out  of  this  prison. 
Will  you  fight  for  him  ? ' 

"  '  Tell  Sir  Damas/  Arthur  answered,  '  that  I 
will  fight  for  him  if  he  will  promise  me  that, 
whether  I  win  or  lose,  all  these  knights  who 
are  here  in  this  prison  shall  be  freed.' 

"  The  girl  went  away,  and  in  a  little  while 
men  came  and  led  Arthur  out  of  the  dungeon 
and  up  into  the  hall  of  the  castle,  where  Sir  Da- 
mas was.  And  there  Arthur  promised  to  fight 
the  battle  for  Sir  Damas,  and  Sir  Damas  prom- 
ised to  free  all  his  prisoners,  whether  Arthur 
should  win  or  lose. 

"  Now  the  story  goes  back  to  Sir  Accolon. 
He  went  to  sleep  in  the  boat,  just  as  King 
Arthur  and  King  Urien  did.  When  he  awoke 
he  was  lying  on  the  ground,  in  a  forest,  just  on 
the  edge  of  a  deep  well.  He  was  so  near  it 
that  he  started  quickly  away  when  he  saw  it, 
and  as  he  turned,  in  getting  away  from  the 
dangerous  place,  he  saw  an  ugly  dwarf  stand- 
ing and  staring  at  him.  In  his  hand  the  dwarf 
held  a  sword,  in  a  beautiful  scabbard,  all  cov- 
ered with  jewels.  '  Sir  Accolon,'  said  the 
dwarf,  '  I  am  sent  to  you  by  Queen  Morgan-le- 
Fay.  She  bade  me  tell  you  that  to-morrow  you 
should  fight  with  a  knight.  But  you  are  to 
have  no  fear  of  him,  good  knight  though  he  is, 
for  she  has  sent  you  here  King  Arthur's  sword, 
Excalibur,  to  fight  him  with.' 


How  the  Scabbard  Was  Lost     261 

"'And  where  am  I  to  find  the  knight?*  Sir 
Accolon  asked. 

" '  Have  no  fear  about  that,'  the  dwarf  an- 
swered;  'you  will  find  him  when  the  time 
comes.' 

"  Then  Sir  Accolon  thought  that  he  under- 
stood the  whole  plan, but  he  did  not;  he  under- 
stood only  a  little  of  it  '  Was  the  boat  where 
we  slept,'  he  asked,  'all  an  enchantment  of 
Queen  Morgan-le-Fay's  to  get  me  here  and  to 
get  me  King  Arthur's  sword  to  fight  with  ?' 

"  '  Yes,'  said  the  dwarf. 

" '  Then,'  said  Accolon, '  give  my  thanks  to 
Queen  Morgan-le-Fay  and  tell  her  that  I  will 
fight  the  battle  for  her/ 

"  The  dwarf  gave  Sir  Accolon  the  sword  and 
left  him  wondering  how  he  was  to  know  what 
knight  he  was  to  fight  and  how  he  was  to  find 
him.  Soon  a  knight,  with  six  squires,  came 
riding  past,  and  when  he  saw  Accolon  he  asked 
him  to  come  with  him  to  his  castle,  which  was 
near.  And  Accolon,  since  he  did  not  know  at 
all  where  he  ought  to  go,  thought  that  it  would 
be  best  to  go  wherever  chance  should  lead  him  ; 
so  he  went  with  the  knight.  And  who  should 
this  knight  be  but  Sir  Onzlake,  and  they  had 
scarcely  reached  his  castle  when  a  message 
came  from  his  brother,  Sir  Damas.  It  said  that 
Sir  Damas  had  found  a  knight  to  fight  for  him, 
and  that  Sir  Onzlake  must  be  ready  to  meet 


262         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

him  early  the  next  morning  in  the  field  beside 
his  brother's  castle. 

"  '  What  shall  I  do,'  said  Sir  Onzlake,  when 
he  had  heard  this  message ;  '  this  is  the  battle 
that  I  have  wished  for  so  long,  and  I  was 
wounded  with  a  spear  only  a  little  while  ago 
and  I  arm  not  strong  enough  yet  to  fight.' 

" '  I  will  tell  you  what  you  shall  do,'  said  Ac- 
colon  ;  '  you  shall  go  to-morrow  and  see  the 
battle,  and  I  will  fight  it  for  you.  It  was  told 
to  me  that  I  should  fight  with  a  knight  to- 
morrow, and  I  have  King  Arthur's  sword,  Ex- 
calibur,  and  the  scabbard.  It  is  the  best  sword 
in  the  world,  and  while  I  have  the  scabbard 
about  me  I  can  lose  no  blood,  so  I  shall  win  the 
battle  for  you.' 

"  So  Sir  Onzlake  sent  back  word  that  a  good 
knight  would  be  ready  to  fight  for  him,  and 
early  the  next  morning  they  rode  to  Sir  Damas's 
castle.  They  stayed  in  the  field  near  the  castle 
and  sent  a  squire  to  say  that  they  were  ready 
and  were  waiting  for  his  knight.  Then  Arthur 
rode  out  from  the  castle  with  arms  and  a  horse 
that  Sir  Damas  had  given  him.  As  he  reached 
the  gate  a  girl  on  horseback  met  him  and  came 
so  close  that  nobody  but  himself  could  hear 
what  she  said.  And  she  said  to  him  :  '  My  lord 
Arthur,  your  sister,  Queen  Morgan-le-Fay, 
sends  you  your  sword,  Excalibur,  and  its  scab- 
bard,' and  she  gave  him  a  sword  and  a  scabbard 


How  the  Scabbard  Was  Lost      263 

that  looked  so  like  his  own  that  he  had  never  a 
doubt  that  they  were  his.  But  they  were  a 
poor  sword  and  a  worthless  scabbard  that 
Morgan-le-Fay  had  made  by  enchantment  to 
deceive  the  King. 

"  Then,  as  Arthur  took  his  place  for  the  first 
charge,  he  saw  the  prisoners,  who  had  been 
freed  from  the  dungeon,  coming  out  of  the  cas- 
tle to  see  the  battle.  They  were  all  pale  and 
thin  and  worn  and  hungry-looking.  Some 
of  them — those  who  had  been  in  the  prison 
longest — could  not  walk  alone,  and  they  leaned 
on  the  others  till  they  came  to  a  place  where 
they  could  see  well,  and  there  they  all  sat  down 
upon  the  grass.  Then  they  breathed  the  pure, 
fresh,  morning  air,  and  gazed  about  at  the 
bright  sunlight  that  was  shining  over  every- 
thing. They  could  scarcely  bear  the  light  at 
first,  but  soon  they  could  see  better.  And  then 
they  looked  at  the  levels  and  slopes  of  grass 
and  the  green  trees,  and  up  at  the  bright  sky, 
with  the  light,  white  clouds  floating  in  it,  and 
back  at  the  walls  of  the  castle  that  had  been 
their  prison.  These  were  beautiful,  too,  with 
their  soft  colors  and  the  morning  sunshine  on 
them  ;  and  the  prisoners  could  scarcely  believe 
that  they  were  really  free  at  last  and  that  now 
they  were  to  see  such  lovely  things  as  these 
every  day.  There  was  one  of  them  who  had 
been  in  that  dungeon  for  many  years  and  yet 


264         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

was  not  old.  He  should  have  been  a  strong 
knight,  full  of  life  and  vigor,  but  he  was  so  weak 
that  he  could  scarcely  even  sit.  And  when  his 
fellow-prisoner,  on  whom  he  had  been  leaning, 
moved  away  from  him,  suddenly  his  head  grew 
dizzy  and  he  fell  forward  upon  the  grass,  and 
there,  close  to  his  face,  he  saw  a  little  white  and 
pink  star  of  a  daisy.  He  picked  it  and  touched 
the  little  rays  and  the  yellow  centre  with  his 
fingers,  and  held  it  close  to  his  eyes,  till  drops 
of  water  came  into  them  and  he  could  not  see 
it  any  more.  He  had  been  shut  in  by  those 
black  walls  so  long  that  he  had  come  almost  to 
believe  that  there  were  no  such  things  in  the 
world  as  blue  sky  and  grass  and  daisies  any 
more. 

"  Then  there  was  a  sharp,  clear  note  from  a 
herald's  trumpet,  and  at  the  sound  all  the  pris- 
oners, who  had  been  more  like  sick  children  a 
minute  before,  were  knights  again.  They 
looked  at  the  two  who  were  to  fight,  at  their 
horses  and  their  armor,  which  were  as  strange 
to  them  as  the  daylight  was.  They  remem- 
bered the  fine  old  battles  which  they  them- 
selves had  seen  and  fought,  and  they  tried  to 
judge  which  of  these  two  would  win.  They 
tried  to  judge,  too,  which  of  them  they  wanted 
to  see  win,  for  one  of  these  knights  had  set 
them  free,  yet  he  was  fighting  for  the  coward 
and  the  traitor  and  the  tyrant  who  had  kept 


How  the  Scabbard  Was  Lost      265 

them  in  prison.  And  the  other  knight  was 
fighting  for  the  right.  If  they  had  known,  as 
Arthur  did,  that  in  this  strange  battle  the  right 
was  fighting  on  both  sides  and  must  win,  they 
could  have  looked  on  more  cheerfully. 

"  Both  the  men  and  both  the  horses  were 
thrown  to  the  ground  at  the  first  charge.  Both 
the  knights  were  on  their  feet  in  a  moment 
and  had  begun  the  fight  with  swords,  and  I 
suppose  there  was  never  a  stranger  sword-fight 
than  that,  for  Arthur  fought  hard  and  well,  and 
yet  there  was  no  strength  and  no  sharpness  in 
his  sword.  He  struck  his  enemy  with  it,  but  it 
would  scarcely  cut  at  all;  and  if  it  did  give 
some  little  wound,  the  knight  seemed  not  to 
mind  it  and  he  fought  as  well  as  before.  But 
wherever  Sir  Accolon*  s  sword  struck,  it  bit  into 
the  very  steel  of  Arthur's  armor  and  cut 
through  it  and  wounded  the  flesh;  and  the 
blood  flowed  from  the  wounds  and  Arthur  felt 
himself  growing  weaker,  and  he  touched  the 
scabbard  by  his  side  to  find  if  it  were  still 
there,  and  could  not  understand  it. 

"And  when  they  had  fought  so  for  a  long 
time  Arthur  felt  that  he  could  stand  only  a  lit- 
tle longer.  If  he  were  to  win  the  battle  he 
must  win  it  now,  and  he  rushed  upon  Accolon 
and  struck  him  a  great  blow  on  the  helmet,  and 
with  that  his  treacherous  sword  broke  in  pieces 
and  left  him  with  only  the  handle  in  his  hand. 


266        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

Then  Accolon  struck  at  Arthur  and  wounded 
him  again,  and  Arthur  saw  that  only  one  chance 
was  left  for  him.  He  put  his  shield  in  front  of 
him  and  rushed  with  a  crash  against  Accolon 
and  at  the  same  time  he  struck  him,  with  all 
the  strength  that  he  had  left,  upon  the  helmet 
with  the  handle  of  the  broken  sword.  Accolon 
fell  and  the  sword  flew  out  of  his  hand.  Ar- 
thur caught  up  the  sword  from  the  ground  and 
the  moment  that  he  had  it  in  his  hand  he  knew 
that  it  was  his  own  Excalibur.  He  sprang 
upon  Accolon  again,  tore  the  scabbard  from 
his  side  and  threw  it  far  off  in  the  field.  Then 
he  struck  Accolon  one  more  blow  with  the 
sword  and  the  battle  was  ended. 

"  Then  Arthur  cut  the  lacings  of  his  enemy's 
helmet  and  took  it  off,  and  saw  that  the  knight 
he  had  been  fighting  was  his  own  knight,  Sir 
Accolon.  '  Accolon,'  he  said,  '  where  did  you 
get  this  sword  ? ' 

" '  It  is  King  Arthur's  sword,'  said  Accolon, 
'  and  his  sister,  Queen  Morgan-le-Fay,  gave  it 
to  me  to  fight  this  battle.  But  you  have  won 
in  spite  of  it.  Will  you  tell  me  who  you  are  ?  ' 

" '  Yes,  Accolon,'  the  King  answered, '  I  am 
Arthur.' 

"  '  Oh,  my  lord,  have  mercy  on  me,  then,'  Ac- 
colon  cried, '  for  I  did  not  know  you.' 

" '  I  believe  that  you  did  not,'  said  Arthur, 
'  and  you  shall  have  mercy.' 


How  the  Scabbard  Was  Lost      267 

"  Then  Arthur  called  the  two  brothers,  Sir 
Damas  and  Sir  Onzlake.  •  Sir  Damas,'  he  said, 
'  I  have  fought  this  battle  for  you  and  I  have 
won  it.  All  the  lands  and  castles  and  what- 
ever else  you  and  your  brother  have  quarrelled 
about  are  yours.  I  was  your  champion  and  I 
have  won  them  for  you.  But  now  the  battle  is 
over  and  I  am  your  champion  no  longer.  I  am 
the  King  now.  Sir  Damas,  you  are  a  coward 
and  a  tyrant,  and  you  are  not  fit  to  be  a  knight. 
This  is  what  I  command  you :  First  you  shall 
give  to  each  of  these  knights  who  have  been 
your  prisoners  the  arms  that  he  had  when  he 
came  here,  or  others  as  good,  and  you  shall  give 
each  of  them  a  horse.  After  that  you  shall 
give  everything  else  that  you  have  to  your 
brother,  Sir  Onzlake,  and  he  shall  give  you 
one  house  to  live  in  and  one  horse  to  ride — a 
palfrey,  not  a  war-horse.  Such  a  man  as  you 
should  never  ride  a  war-horse.  And  you,  Sir 
Onzlake — I  have  heard  such  good  report  of 
you  that  you  shall  come  to  my  court,  if  you 
will,  and  be  one  of  my  knights.  And  now,  Sir 
Onzlake,  I  am  wounded  and  weary.  Tell  me 
how  far  I  am  from  CameloL' 

" '  It  is  two  days*  journey,  my  lord,'  said  Sir 
Onzlake ;  '  but  only  a  little  way  from  here  there 
is  an  abbey  where  you  can  rest  as  long  as  you 
wish  and  have  what  care  you  need.' 

"So  Arthur  went  with  Sir  Onzlake  to  the 


268         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

abbey,  and  the  nuns  took  care  of  him,  and  he 
stayed  there  while  his  wounds  were  healing. 

"Now  when  Morgan-le-Fay  heard  that  King 
Arthur  had  not  been  killed,  and  that  he  had  his 
sword  Excalibur  and  the  scabbard,  she  began 
to  think  how  she  should  get  them  again.  And 
she  was  never  slow  at  thinking.  When  she 
had  thought,  she  took  forty  of  her  own  knights 
and  left  Camelot  and  rode  with  them  to  the 
abbey  where  King  Arthur  was.  '  Is  King  Ar- 
thur here?'  she  asked  of  the  nuns. 

u<Yes,'  they  answered,  'he  is  here.' 

"  '  Take  me  to  him,  then.' 

"  '  He  is  asleep  now,'  they  answered ;  '  you 
cannot  see  him  till  he  wakes.' 

"  '  I  must  see  him  now,'  she  said  ;  '  I  am  his 
sister,  Queen  Morgan-le-Fay.' 

"  When  they  heard  that  they  did  not  dare 
to  disobey  her,  so  they  led  her  to  the  room 
where  the  King  was.  He  was  sleeping,  but  his 
sword  Excalibur  was  in  his  hand  and  the  scab- 
bard lay  a  little  way  off.  It  was  the  sword 
that  Morgan-le-Fay  wanted,  but  she  did  not 
dare  to  take  it,  for  fear  of  waking  the  King,  so 
she  took  the  scabbard,  left  the  abbey  quickly, 
mounted  her  horse,  and  rode  away  with  her 
knights. 

"  She  was  scarcely  gone  when  the  King  awoke 
and  missed  the  scabbard.  He  called  some  of 
the  nuns  and  asked  who  had  taken  it,  and  they 


the  Scabbed  Was  Lost     269 

told  him  that  it  was  bis  sister  and  that  they 
had  not  dared  to  disobey  her  commands.  And 
surely,  when  Arthur  himself  had  trusted  his 
sister  so  long,  he  could  not  blame  the  poor 
nuns  for  trusting  her.  His  wounds  were  near!  j 
well  bj  this  time,  so  he  sent  for  his  horse  and 
began  to  put  on  his  armor,  and  he  sent  for  Sir 
Onzlake  and  told  him  to  put  on  his  armor  and 
be  ready  to  ride  with  him. 

•"  As  soon  as  they  were  both  ready  they  rode 
the  way  that  Morgan-le-Fay  and  her  knights 
had  gone,  and  in  a  little  while  they  saw  them 
far  ahead.  As  fast  as  they  could  King  Arthur 
and  Sir  Onzlake  followed,  and  the  forty  knights 
of  Morgan4e-Fay  were  such  good,  brave  knights 
that  they  thought  of  nothing  but  of  getting 
away  from  the  two  who  were  coming  after  them. 
So  they  all  rode  on  through  a  forest  and  then 
out  upon  a  plain,  and  all  the  time  King  Arthur 
and  Sir  Onzlake  were  gaining.  And  Morgan- 
le-Fay  was  passing  near  a  little  lake  when  she 
looked  back  and  saw  that  her  brother  would 
soon  overtake  her.  She  could  not  hope  to  keep 
the  scabbard  of  Excalibur,  but.  rather  than  let 
him  have  it,  she  threw  it  as  far  as  she  could  out 
into  the  lake.  It  whirled  through  the  air  in  an 
arch,  and  its  Jewels  made  a  rainbow  in  the  sun- 
light, and  then  it  sank  into  the  water  and  no- 
body  ever  saw  it  again. 

"  But  still  King  Arthur  and  Sir  Onzlake  fol- 


2/o         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

lowed  Morgan-le-Fay  and  her  knights,  and  still 
they  gained  on  them.  At  last  the  Queen  and 
the  knights  rode  down  into  a  valley,  and  the 
King  and  his  knight  were  out  of  sight  over 
the  brow  of  the  hill.  But  the  Queen  knew 
that  before  her  company  could  climb  the  hill 
on  the  other  side  her  brother  would  come  up 
with  them.  Then,  in  an  instant,  by  the  magic 
that  she  knew  how  to  use,  she  changed  herself 
and  all  her  knights  and  their  horses  into  stone. 
In  a  moment  King  Arthur  and  Sir  Onzlake 
were  among  them,  and  they  looked  about  and 
there  was  a  statue  of  a  queen  on  a  horse  and 
there  were  statues  of  forty  knights  on  horses. 
'  See,'  said  Arthur,  '  God  has  turned  them  all 
into  stone  for  their  wickedness.  There  is 
nothing  for  us  to  do.' 

"  And  the  King  and  the  knight  turned  their 
horses  and  rode  back  toward  the  abbey.  Then, 
when  they  were  out  of  sight,  the  Queen  turned 
herself  and  her  knights  back  to  flesh  again,  and 
the  whole  forty-one  of  them  thanked  their  stars 
that  they  were  safe  from  the  two  who  had 
been  following  them. 

"  And  so  the  scabbard  of  Excalibur  was  lost 
forever.  But  I  don't  think  that  King  Arthur 
really  cared  very  much.  He  always  trusted  to 
his  own  strength  and  bravery  more  than  to 
magic  when  he  was  in  a  fight.  He  still  had  the 
best  sword  in  the  whole  world.  He  could  get 


Haw  the  Scabbard  Was  Lost     271 

another  scabbard  good  enough  to  carry  it  in, 
and  a  good  sword,  he  thought,  was  better  to 
guard  himself  with  than  any  scabbard.*1 

"If  Morgan4e-Fay  wanted  to  kill  King 
Arthur,"  said  Helen,  "  why  didn't  she  kill  him 
when  she  had  him  in  the  boat  ?  " 

"I  don't  know,"  I  said,  "why  she  didn't. 
People  in  stories,  you  know,  always  do  things 
the  longest  and  the  hardest  ways.  1  suppose 
they  do  so  just  to  make  the  stories." 


CHAPTER  XIV 

KING   ARTHUR'S   GRAVESTONE 

THERE  are  some  half-dozen  places  scattered 
over  the  world  that  I  always  remember  as 
places  of  friendliness  and  rest  and  happiness. 
I  come  back  to  them,  if  I  am  lucky  enough  to 
see  them  for  a  second  time,  with  a  feeling  of 
getting  home.  I  shall  feel  so,  I  am  sure,  if  I 
ever  go  again  to  Tintagel,  though  it  was  only  a 
little  while  that  we  were  there. 

We  left  it  early  in  the  morning,  wishing  to 
have  time  to  see  a  little  of  Camelford  and 
Slaughter  Bridge  and  King  Arthur's  Grave,  as 
they  called  it,  before  taking  our  train. 

We  rode  back  along  the  way  that  we  had 
come,  between  those  high,  slate  castle  walls, 
and  past  the  dangerous,  deep,  harmless-look- 
ing pools  of  water,  and  among  the  fields,  with 
their  low  slate  walls  and  the  yellow  and  scarlet 
flowers  growing  on  them,  and  so  we  came  to 
the  Camelford  railway  station.  We  found  a 


King  Arthurs  Gravestone         273 

safe  place  to  leave  our  luggage  and  asked  the 
porter  to  show  us  the  way  to  Slaughter 
Bridge,  It  was  only  across  the  track  and 
down  the  bank  and  a  little  way  along  the 
muddy  road,  and  we  were  there.  It  was  just 
a  little  stone  bridge  across  a  bit  of  a  river,  the 
CameL  Of  course  we  had  to  stand  on  it  and 
look  up  and  down  the  river  and  all  around,  and 
try  to  think  of  the  place  full  of  fighting  men 
and  charging  horses.  We  tried  to  bring  back 
the  picture  of  the  battle,  the  rushing  together 
of  the  lines  of  knights,  the  shock  of  their  meet- 
ing, the  clatter  of  the  armor,  the  men  and  the 
horses  falling  and  rolling  down  and  choking 
up  this  little  stream — yet  I  had  to  declare  once 
more  that  I  did  not  believe  that  the  battle  was 
fought  here  at  alL 

Across  the  river  and  a  little  way  along  the 
road  there  was  a  mill,  and  there  was  a  black- 
smith's shop  next  to  it.  The  miller,  a  good- 
looking  young  fellow,  stood  at  his  door  look- 
ing at  us.  We  went  up  to  the  mill  and  asked 
him  where  King  Arthur's  gravestone  was. 
Through  the  gate  and  just  a  little  up  the  river 
and  down  the  bank,  he  said,  we  should  find  it. 
We  tried  to  go  the  way  he  said.  We  scram- 
bled down  the  bank  and  over  wet  and  slippery 
places  and  among  the  bushes,  and  never  a  sign 
of  a  gravestone  could  we  find.  We  were  quite 
ashamed  of  ourselves,  because  the  miller  had 


274        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

told  us  it  was  so  easy  to  find,  but  we  had  to 
give  it  up  and  go  back  to  ask  again. 

The  miller  was  out  of  sight  when  we  went 
back,  but  the  blacksmith  was  pounding  on  his 
anvil  and  smoking  his  stump  of  a  pipe  and 
talking  to  a  neighbor  who  stood  by.  The  black- 
smith was  an  old  man,  with  a  thin,  straggly,  white 
beard.  We  told  him  we  could  not  find  King 
Arthur's  gravestone.  He  began  to  tell  us  again, 
then  he  stopped  and  thought  fora  moment,  and 
then  he  said  :  "  Shall  I  go  and  show  you  ?  " 

"  If  you  would,  please,  we  should  be  ever  so 
much  obliged." 

The  old  man  dropped  his  hammer,  tossed  his 
hot  iron  back  upon  the  forge,  and  started 
briskly  off  along  the  road.  He  turned  up  the 
river,  plunged  down  the  bank,  dashed  through 
the  bushes,  and  then  stood  still  and  looked 
around.  King  Arthur's  gravestone  was  not 
where  he  thought  it  was,  and  he  did  not  know 
where  to  look  for  it.  We  were  quite  delighted 
and  thought  a  good  deal  better  of  ourselves 
than  we  had  before.  If  the  blacksmith  could 
not  find  King  Arthur's  gravestone,  how  could 
we  expect  to?  But  the  blacksmith  knew  what 
he  was  looking  for  and  we  did  not,  and  so  in  a 
few  minutes  he  found  it. 

It  was  a  flat  stone,  some  seven  feet  long  and 
two  wide,  lying  on  the  ground.  "  There  are 
some  letters  on  it,"  said  the  old  man. 


King  Arthur's  Gravestone         275 

The  place  was  so  shady,  that,  on  this  dull, 
cloudy  day,  it  was  almost  dark.  We  could 
scarcely  see  the  letters  at  all,  but  we  could  feel 
them.  We  tried  to  read  them,  using  partly 
our  eyes  and  partly  our  fingers,  like  a  blind 
man.  I  began  :  "  L-A-T-I-N — and  then  here 
are  two  I's — and  then  there  are  some  things 
that  don't  seem  to  be  any  letters  that  I  ever 
met  with  before,  except  now  and  then  an  A. 
I^A-T-I-N  spells  '  Latin '  well  enough,  but  the 
rest  of  it  doesn't  seem  to  be  Latin  or  anything 
else." 

"  A  good  many  'as  tried  to  read  it,"  said  the 
old  man,  "  but  none  of  'em  can't  make  nothing 
out  of  it" 

"  There  seem  to  be  a  good  many  A's,"  I  said. 

The  old  man  grinned.  "  Maybe  they  knawed 
'ow  to  make  A's  best,"  he  said. 

After  all,  we  could  not  think  of  any  better 
way  to  account  for  it,  so  we  accepted  that  one. 
"What  I  can't  see,"  said  the  blacksmith,  "  is 
'ow  they  ever  got  that  stone  'ere  ;  it's  so  'eavy." 

It  did  not  seem  strange  to  me  at  alL  I 
thought  that  a  yoke  of  oxen,  with  a  good  big 
chain,  could  move  it  easily  enough.  But  of 
course  I  did  not  want  to  hurt  the  old  man's 
feelings  by  saying  so. 

It  is  lucky  that  this  is  a  book  of  stories  and 
not  a  book  of  travels.  Because  I  positively 
cannot  remember  which  side  of  the  river  that 


276        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

stone  was  on.  I  do  not  remember  whether  we 
crossed  the  river  on  stepping-stones  to  get 
back  to  the  blacksmith's  shop,  or  whether  we 
were  already  on  the  same  side  of  it.  Since  this 
is  a  book  of  stories  it  doesn't  matter.  I  do  re- 
member that  we  went  through  grass  that  was 
so  tall  and  so  wet  that  it  did  not  seem  to 
make  much  difference  whether  we  were  in  the 
river  or  the  grass.  We  asked  the  blacksmith 
the  way  to  Camelford  village,  he  pointed  along 
the  road,  we  gave  him  our  thanks  and  a  little 
something  else,  and  we  set  out  for  a  two-mile 
walk. 

"  Oh,  I  don't  want  this  to  be  Camelot  at  all," 
Helen  said,  as  we  walked  through  the  street 
of  Camelford. 

It  was  not  a  pretty  place.  All  the  houses 
were  small  and  poor,  and  the  people  looked 
poor  too.  The  street  was  not  over-clean,  and 
neither  were  the  houses  or  the  people.  "  I 
don't  want  it  to  be  Camelot  either,"  I  said, 
"  and  even  that  sign  there, '  White  Hart — W. 
Arthur,'  shall  not  convince  me  that  a  descend- 
ant of  King  Arthur  is  keeping  an  hotel  here. 
We  will  not  even  go  to  Mr.  W.  Arthur's  house 
for  luncheon ;  we  will  go  to  the  King's  Arms." 

The  King's  Arms  seemed  to  be  a  very  good 
hotel  for  such  a  village  as  Camelford  to  have. 
In  the  coffee-room  there  was  an  account  of 
King  Arthur,  printed  and  framed  and  hung  on 


King  Arthur's  Gravts'omc         r-- 

the  wall.  I  read  it  while  we  were  waiting  for 
them  to  bring  our  luncheon.  If  it  was  all  true 
it  showed  that  the  great  battle  was  fought 
somewhere  near  here,  but  it  showed,  too,  that 
King  Arthur  was  not  buried  at  Slaughter 
Bridge.  "  But,  after  all,"  I  said, "  how  can  that 
stone  that  we  saw  be  the  stone  that  the  story  is 
about  unless  this  is  Camelot?" 

"Then  it  really  is  King  Arthur's  grave- 
stone?-Helen  asked. 

"I  didn't  say  it  was  King  Arthur's  grave- 
stone; I  said  'the  stone  that  the  story  is 
about.' " 

"  Is  it  another  story  then?  " 

"  Yes,  it  is  another  story,  about  a  very  won- 
derful stone,  and  I  think  that  the  stone  that  we 
saw  this  morning,  with  the  letters  on  it,  must 
be  the  very  one.  But  it  cannot  be  unless  this 
Camelford  is  really  Camelot." 

"But  you  said  you  didn't  believe  it  was 
Camelot,  and  you  didn't  want  to  believe  it." 

"Yes,  I  did  say  so,  but  1  think  we  might  bet- 
ter believe  it,  just  for  the  sake  of  this  story." 

-  But  how  can  we  believe  it  if  it  isn't  so?" 

"My  child,  you  must  learn  my  way  of  be- 
lieving things  whether  they  are  so  or  not;  of 
believing  them  when  you  want  to  and  not  be- 
lieving them  when  you  don't  want  to.  If  you 
can't  believe  yon  must  make  believe. 

"Yet  the  story  does  not  begin  here,  but  at 


278         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

Caerleon.  Once,  when  King  Arthur  was  hold- 
ing his  court  there,  a  messenger  came  to  him 
from  King  Ryence,  of  North  Wales.  He  was 
the  giant,  you  know,  who  was  making  war  on 
King  Leodogran,  of  Cameliard,  that  time  when 
King  Arthur  went  to  help  him.  Well,  it  seems 
that  he  was  beginning  to  get  over  the  whipping 
that  he  got  then,  and  he  was  still  thinking 
about  that  wonderful  mantle  that  he  had,  that 
was  trimmed  with  kings'  beards.  So  his  mes- 
senger, who  was  very  polite  about  it,  said  that 
Arthur  must  send  his  beard  to  Ryence  to  put 
on  his  mantle,  and,  as  Ryence  really  wanted  it 
very  much,  he  should  be  glad  to  take  it  with 
him.  He  said,  too,  that  if  Arthur  would  send  it 
peaceably  and  of  his  own  accord  King  Ryence 
would  put  it  in  the  very  best  place  on  his  man- 
tle, where  it  would  show  much  better  than  any 
of  the  eleven  kings'  beards  that  he  had  already  ; 
but  if  Arthur  would  not  send  it,  then  King  Ry- 
ence would  come  with  an  army  and  take  it,  and 
he  would  take  Arthur's  head  at  the  same  time. 

"'Say  to  King  Ryence,'  Arthur  answered, 
'  that  I  am  still  so  young  that  my  beard  is  not 
long  enough  to  trim  a  mantle  with.  Say  to 
him,  too,  that,  such  as  it  is,  if  he  wants  it,  he 
must  come  and  take  it,  and,  if  he  does  not  come 
against  me  soon  I  shall  go  against  him,  to  see 
which  of  us  shall  do  homage  to  the  other.' 

"Then,  as  Arthur  had  a  good  many  other 


King  Arthur's  Gravestone         279 

things  to  think  about,  he  forgot  about  Ryence 
for  a  time.  And  now  the  story  comes  here  to 
Camelot,  for  it  was  here  that  the  King  was 
holding  his  court  when  more  messengers  came 
to  him  to  say  that  Ryence  was  coming  with  a 
great  army,  and  that  Arthur  must  make  ready 
to  meet  him,  or  all  his  country  would  be  laid 
waste  and  he  himself  would  be  killed.  Now 
Arthur  and  his  knights  were  always  ready  to 
meet  any  enemy  who  might  come,  so  they  did 
not  feel  much  frightened. 

"  And  at  about  the  time  that  the  King  and  all 
the  knights  had  heard  this  news,  there  came  into 
the  hall  a  young  girl.  She  went  to  the  King 
and  threw  off  her  mantle,  and  showed  him  that 
she  wore  a  big,  beautiful  sword.  '  Why  do  you 
wear  that  ?  '  the  King  asked ;  *  it  is  strange  to 
see  a  girl  like  you  wearing  a  sword.* 

" 4  My  lord,'  she  answered, '  I  cannot  take  it 
off.  It  has  been  put  on  me  by  enchantment. 
And  it  was  told  me  that  nobody  could  draw 
this  sword  out  of  its  scabbard  and  free  me  from 
it  except  the  best  knight  in  your  court.  So  I 
have  come  here  to  see  which  of  your  knights 
can  draw  it  for  me.' 

"  So  King  Arthur  commanded  that  every 
one  of  his  knights  should  try  to  draw  the 
sword.  And  they  all  tried,  and  they  ail  pulled 
hard  at  the  sword,  and  not  one  of  them  could 
pull  it  out  of  its  scabbard.  '  You  do  not  need 


280        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

to  try  so  hard,'  the  girl  said ;  '  the  knight  who 
can  draw  it  at  all  can  draw  it  easily.' 

"  I  don't  know  where  Lancelot  and  Gawain 
and  Gareth  were.  It  seems  as  if  one  of  them 
ought  to  have  been  able  to  draw  the  sword. 
I  suppose  they  were  away  on  some  adventures. 
But  there  was  a  poor  knight  in  the  hall  whose 
name  was  Balin.  He  was  not  one  of  Arthur's 
knights.  He  had  killed  one  of  the  King's 
knights  and  the  King  had  put  him  in  prison  for 
it,  but  he  had  found  out  that  it  was  in  a  fair  fight 
and  not  Balin's  fault,  and  he  had  let  him  out, 
but  he  had  not  yet  left  the  court.  And  as  the 
girl  was  leaving  the  hall  with  her  sword  Balin 
asked  her  to  let  him  try  to  draw  it. 

"  But  the  girl  looked  at  his  poor  clothes  and 
said  :  '  No  ;  do  not  trouble  me  any  more  ;  how 
could  you  hope  to  do  it  when  all  these  good 
knights  have  failed.' 

" '  Do  not  judge  me  so  because  I  am  poor/ 
Balin  answered  ;  '  many  a  good  and  brave  man 
may  wear  poor  clothes ;  let  me  try  to  draw  the 
sword.' 

"  So  he  took  hold  of  the  sword  and  easily 
drew  it  out.  And  he  held  it  up  and  looked  at 
it,  and  thought  that  he  had  never  seen  a  finer 
sword.  '  Give  it  back  to  me  now,'  said  the" 
girl;  'if  you  keep  it,  it  will  bring  you  bad 
luck.' 

" '  No,'  said  Balin  ;  '  when  a  knight  has  won 


King  Arthur's  Gravestone         281 

a  sword  in  such  a  way  as  this,  it  is  his  to  keep. 
I  am  not  afraid  of  bad  luck  and  I  will  keep  it.* 

M  •  If  you  keep  it,*  said  the  girl,  'you  will  al- 
ways have  bad  lack ;  you  will  do  great  harm, 
and  you  will  kill  the  man  that  you  love  best  in 
all  the  world.' 

-•  I  am  not  afraid,'  said  Balin ;  *  I  will  keep 
the  sword.' 

"So  the  girl  went  out  of  the  hall  and  away, 
and  Balin,  who  meant  to  leave  the  court  too, 
went  to  King  Arthur  to  take  his  leave  of  him. 
•Do  not  go/  said  the  King,  "and  do  not  be 
angry  with  me  because  I  put  yon  in  prison. 
I  had  heard  false  stories  about  you  and  I  did 
not  know  what  a  good  knight  yon  were.  Stay 
with  us  now  and  be  one  of  my  own  knights.' 

"'I  thank  yon,  my  lord,'  Balin  answered, 
'  but  I  must  go  now  and  find  adventures  and 
prove  myself  the  good  knight  that  yon  say  I  am. 
When  f  have  done  that  I  will  come  back.' 

"  So  Balin  went  out  of  the  hall  and  put  on 
his  armor  and  rode  away.  And  Merlin  said 
to  the  King:  « My  lord,  there  are  few  better 
knights  than  this  Balin,  and  he  will  do  yon 
good  service,  but  his  own  life  will  be  sad  and 
he  will  not  live  long.' 

"  Balin  was  not  far  from  Camelot  when  he 
saw  a  knight  coming  toward  him  along  the  road, 
and  he  knew  by  the  knight's  shield  and  armor 
that  he  was  his  brother  Balan.  And  when 


282        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

they  met  Balan  said :  '  I  heard  that  you  were  in 
prison,  and  afterward  I  heard  that  you  were 
free,  and  I  was  coming  to  Camelot  to  meet 
you.' 

"  And  Balin  said :  '  I  am  going  away  from 
Camelot  now.  King  Arthur  was  kind  to  me 
and  begged  me  to  stay,  but  I  want  to  do  some 
great  deed,  something  to  show  to  King  Arthur 
that  I  deserve  his  kindness.  You  shall  go  with 
me  and  help  me  now,  and  we  will  go  against 
King  Ryence.  They  say  he  is  at  Castle  Ter- 
rabil.' 

"  So  Balan  turned  and  went  with  Balin. 
They  had  not  gone  far  when  they  met  Merlin, 
but  they  did  not  know  him,  because  he  was 
disguised  in  some  way  or  other.  '  Knights,' 
said  Merlin,  '  whither  are  you  going?' 

" '  Who  are  you,'  said  Balin,  '  that  we  should 
tell  you  ? ' 

" '  I  will  not  tell  you  who  I  am,'  Merlin  an- 
swered, '  but  I  will  tell  you  whither  you  are  rid- 
ing; you  are  seeking  King  Ryence,  but  you  will 
gain  nothing  by  it,  unless  you  have  my  advice.' 

" '  I  know  who  you  are,'  said  Balin,  *  when 
you  talk  like  that.  You  are  Merlin,  and  we 
will  take  your  advice  and  thank  you  for  it.' 

"  Then  Merlin  led  them  into  a  wood  and  told 
them  to  lie  down  and  sleep  and  he  would  wake 
them  when  it  was  time.  So  the  two  knights 
lay  down  and  slept  till  midnight  and  then  Mer- 


King  Arthur's  Gravestone         283 

lin  woke  them.  '  You  most  be  read  j  now,'  he 
said,  •  for  King  Rjence  is  coming.  He  is  riding 
through  the  wood  with  some  of  his  knights. 
Wait  here  till  some  of  them  are  past  and  you 
see  the  King  himself,  and  then  fall  upon  him 
and  take  him  prisoner.' 

"  It  was  not  long  that  they  had  to  wait  be- 
fore the  company  of  knights  came  past.  When 
half  of  them  had  gone  by  Merlin  pointed  and 
said  :  *  There  is  the  King :  attack  him  now  and 
take  him!' 

"  Then  Balin  and  Balan  rushed  forward  and 
attacked  the  King  and  the  knights  that  were 
next  to  him.  They  were  all  surprised  and  none 
of  them  was  ready  to  fight.  In  a  moment  Balin 
and  Balan  had  wounded  half  a  dozen  of  them. 
Even  very  brave  men  sometimes  get  frightened 
at  such  a  time  as  this,  as  old  soldiers  will  tell 
you.  In  the  darkness  and  the  confusion  these 
knights  could  not  see  how  few  men  were  at- 
tacking them.  They  knew  only  that  some  of 
them  were  wounded,  and  they  thought  that 
nothing  less  than  a  large  company  would  dare 
to  attack  them,  as  many  as  they  were.  They 
did  not  know  whether  their  enemies  were  on 
one  side  or  the  other,  or  all  around  them,  and 
so  they  just  turned  and  ran  away. 

"  But  the  King  did  not  run  away.  Giant  as 
he  was,  Balin  and  Balan  had  given  him  two  or 
three  wounds  before  he  knew  what  was  going 


284        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

on  at  all,  and  now  they  took  good  care  that  he 
should  not  get  away.  When  his  own  knights 
had  left  him  he  was  in  their  hands,  and  they 
had  only  to  lead  him  where  they  would.  They 
brought  him  to  Camelot,  to  the  gate  of  the  cas- 
tle of  King  Arthur,  and  there  they  gave  him 
over  to  the  porters  and  told  them  to  take  him 
before  the  King.  Then  they  rode  away. 

"  King  Ryence  was  led  into  the  hall,  not  half 
so  glad  to  be  there  as  King  Arthur  was  to  see 
him  there.  King  Arthur  asked  him  how  he 
had  come  there,  and  Ryence  told  him  all  that 
he  knew  about  the  little  battle  in  the  wood  and 
the  two  knights  who  had  taken  him  prisoner 
and  brought  him  to  Camelot.  '  Who  were  the 
knights?'  King  Arthur  asked. 

"'I  do  not  know,'  said  Ryence. 

"'  My  lord,'  said  Merlin,  who  stood  near  the 
King, '  they  were  Balin,  who  drew  the  sword 
that  the  girl  carried,  and  his  brother  Balan.' 

"  Then  Ryence,  seeing  that  there  was  noth- 
ing else  to  be  done,  swore  to  keep  peace  with 
King  Arthur  and  to  be  faithful  to  him  as  long 
as  he  lived.  So  the  King  let  him  go,  and  he 
thought  himself  very  lucky  to  get  away  from 
Camelot  alive. 

"  The  story  does  not  tell  how  Balin  and  Balan 
chanced  to  part,  after  they  had  left  Camelot 
again,  but  the  next  time  that  it  tells  of  Balin 
he  was  alone.  As  he  rode  on  his  way  he  came 


King  Arthur's  Gravestone         285 

up  with  a  knight  and  a  girl,  who  were  riding 
together.  The  knight  looked  so  sorrowful 
that  Balin  asked  him  what  it  was  that  made 
him  sad,  but  the  knight  would  not  tell  him.  '  1 
would  help  you  if  I  could,'  said  Balin. 

"'You  cannot  help  me,'  said  the  knight. 

"  •  May  I  ride  with  you  ? '  Balin  asked. 

" '  Yes,1  said  the  knight, '  if  you  wish  it.1 

"So  they  rode  on  together,  and  they  had 
gone  only  a  little  way  when,  without  any  warn- 
ing, a  spear  struck  the  knight  from  behind  and 
he  fell  down  off  his  horse.  '  I  am  killed,'  he 
cried, « by  a  traitor  knight  named  Garlon,  who 
rides  invisible.  Take  my  horse,  Sir  Knight ;  he 
is  better  than  yours.  Go  with  this  maiden,  find 
this  murderer  Garlon,  and  avenge  my  death.' 

"  Then  the  knight  died.  Balin  and  the  girl 
rode  on,  and  Balin  was  very  silent  and  very 
thoughtful,  for,  brave  man  as  he  was,  he  was 
filled  with  horror  at  the  thought  that  anyone 
should  have  the  power  to  ride  without  being 
seen,  and  to  kill  men  who  did  not  know  that 
anyone  was  near.  He  wondered  how  it  could 
be  and  how  he  could  find  this  invisible  mur- 
derer and  punish  him.  And  as  they  rode  on 
in  this  way  they  met  another  knight.  It  was 
Balin  who  looked  sad  now,  and  the  other  knight 
asked  him  why  it  was.  « A  knight  was  riding 
with  me  a  little  while  ago,' said  Balin,  'and 
Garlon,  who  rides  invisible,  came  behind  him 


286         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

and  killed  him  with  a  spear.     I  am  seeking  this 
Garlon  to  punish  him.' 

"  '  May  I  go  with  you  and  help  you  ? '  said 
the  other  knight. 
r     "  '  Yes/  said  Balin,  '  if  you  will.' 

"  But  they  had  scarcely  started  on  again  when 
another  spear  came  from  behind  and  struck  the 
knight,  and  he,  too,  fell  down  from  his  horse 
and  died.  And  Balin  and  the  girl  rode  on 
again,  and  Balin  wondered  more  and  more  how 
he  could  ever  find  and  punish  this  murderer 
who  could  not  be  seen.  Toward  night  they 
came  to  a  castle  and  they  thought  that  it  would 
be  best  to  stay  there  till  morning  ;  but  as  Balin 
rode  in  through  the  gate  ahead  of  the  girl,  sud- 
denly the  portcullis  was  dropped  behind  him 
and  she  was  left  outside.  Then,  as  he  looked 
back,  he  saw  that  men  had  surrounded  her  as 
if  they  would  make  her  a  prisoner.  He  could 
not  get  back  through  the  gate  to  help  her,  so 
he  ran  up  to  the  top  of  the  wall  of  the  castle,  at 
a  place  where  it  was  not  too  high,  and  jumped 
over,  and  in  a  moment  he  was  among  the  men 
with  his  sword  drawn.  But  they  said  to  him  : 
'  We  will  not  fight  with  you ;  we  mean  to  do 
with  this  maiden  only  according  to  the  custom 
of  our  castle.' 

"  That  was  another  of  the  grange  ways  that 
they  had  in  those  days.  Castles  had  the  most 
remarkable  customs.  Some  of  them  were  good, 


King  Arthur's  Gravestone        287 

and  some  of  them  were  wicked  and  cruel,  and 
some  of  them  were  sill y.  But  the  people  of 
the  castle  could  do  almost  anything  they  liked 
with  strangers,  and  the  strangers  would  not 
complain  if  they  only  said :  *  It  is  the  custom  of 
the  castle.' 

M<  What  is  the  custom  of  your  castle?'  Balin 
asked. 

44 '  The  lady  of  the  castle,'  the  men  answered, 
'  has  been  sick  for  a  long  time.  It  is  said  that 
nothing  can  ever  cure  her  except  the  blood  of 
a  maiden  in  a  silver  dish.  So  it  is  the  custom 
of  the  castle  that  every  maiden  who  comes  this 
way  must  give  a  little  of  her  Mood  to  try 
whether  it  will  cure  our  lady.  If  she  wfll  give 
it  of  her  own  accord,  it  is  all  the  better ;  if  she 
will  not,  we  make  her  give  it.' 

"  *  If  this  maiden  who  is  with  me,'  said  Balin, 
•  wishes  to  give  you  some  of  her  blood  for  your 
lady,  she  may  give  it;  if  she  will  not,  you  shall 
not  harm  her.* 

-'I  will  give  it  gladly,'  she  said ;  and  so  she 
did,  and  it  did  the  lady  of  the  castle  no  good 
atalL. 

"  They  rode  on  again  the  next  day,  and  at 
night  they  came  to  another  castle,  and  the  lord 
of  it  asked  them  to  stay  till  morning.  While 
they  were  at  sr  pper  Balin  thought  that  he 
heard  a  groan,  as  of  some  one  in  great  pain, 
and  he  asked  the  lord  of  the  castle  who  it  was 


288        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

'  Not  long  ago,'  he  answered,  '  I  was  at  a  tour- 
nament,  and  twice  I  jousted  with  another 
knight  who  was  there,  the  brother  of  King 
Pelles,  and  twice  I  threw  him  down.  Then,  to 
be  revenged  on  me,  he  wounded  my  son.  It  is 
my  son  whose  groan  you  heard,  for  his  wound 
is  not  well,  and  they  say  that  it  never  can  be 
made  well,  except  by  the  blood  of  the  knight 
who  wounded  him.  And  I  cannot  find  the 
knight,  because  he  rides  invisible,  and  I  do  not 
know  his  name.' 

" '  I  know  his  name,'  said  Balin ;  '  it  is  Garlon, 
and  I  am  seeking  him,  to  punish  him  for  kill- 
ing two  knights  who  were  with  me.  If  I  can 
find  him  and  kill  him,  you  shall  have  some  of 
his  blood  to  heal  your  son's  wound.' 

" '  Then  I  will  tell  you,'  the  other  said,  '  how 
you  can  find  him.  His  brother,  King  Pelles, 
will  give  a  great  feast  at  his  castle  a  few  days 
from  now.  This  Garlon  will  surely  be  at  the 
feast,  and  there  he  will  not  be  invisible.  Any 
knight  can  come  there  who  brings  with  him 
his  wife  or  his  lady.  I  cannot  go,  for  I  have 
no  wife,  but  you  can  go  with  this  maiden  who 
is  with  you.1 

" '  I  will  go,  then,'  said  Balin,  '  for  I  do  not 
know  how  else  I  can  ever  find  him.' 

"  So  in  the  morning  they  set  out  toward 
the  castle  of  King  Pelles,  and  their  host  went 
with  them.  It  was  a  long  way,  and  when  they 


King  Arthur's  Gravestone        289 

came  to  the  King's  castle  it  was  already  the 
first  day  of  the  feast.  The  knight  whose  son 
was  wounded  could  not  go  into  the  castle  be- 
cause he  had  no  lady  with  him,  but  Balin  and 
the  girl  went  in.  The  people  of  the  castle  led 
Balin  to  a  chamber  and  took  off  his  armor,  and 
when  it  was  time  for  him  to  go  to  the  table 
they  asked  him  to  leave  his  sword  in  the 
chamber,  too.  But  Balin  said :  •  No,  it  is  the 
custom  of  my  country  for  a  knight  to  wear  his 
sword  always,  and  I  must  do  so  or  I  must  leave 
you  and  your  castle  and  your  feast' 

"  So  they  let  him  wear  his  sword.  Then 
they  placed  him  at  the  table,  and  the  girl  who 
had  come  with  him  sat  next  to  him.  Then 
Balin  said  to  some  one  who  sat  near  him :  '  Is 
there  not  a  knight  in  this  court  named  Garlon  ? ' 

"  '  Yes,'  he  answered,  '  that  is  he  yonder.' 

"  Then  Balin  looked  at  Garlon  and  thought : 
'He  is  here  among  his  friends;  if  I  kill  him 
here  they  will  surely  kill  me;  I  cannot  es- 
cape ;  yet  if  I  let  him  go  now  I  may  never  have 
another  chance  to  kill  him.' 

"  Then  Garlon  saw  Balin-  looking  at  him,  and 
he  came  up  to  him  and  struck  him  in  the  face 
and  said :  '  Knight,  why  do  you  stare  at  me  ? 
Eat  your  meat  and  do  what  you  came  for!' 

"  *  I  will  do  what  I  came  for,'  said  Balin,  and 
he  sprang  up  and  drew  his  sword  and  struck 
off  Garlon's  head  before  anybody  could  raise 


290        The  Coiirt  of  King  Arthur 

a  hand  to  stop  him.  Then  for  an  instant  he 
stood  there  with  his  sword  in  his  hand,  before 
any  one  could  move  toward  him.  He  whis- 
pered to  the  girl :  '  I  have  avenged  your 
knight ;  take  some  ^of  the  blood  of  this  man 
quickly  to  our  host  of  the  castle  to  cure  his 
son's  wound.' 

"  Then  he  set  his  back  against  the  wall,  ready 
to  guard  himself  against  those  who  would  at- 
tack him.  And  they  all  started  up  and  came 
toward  him  at  once,  but  King  Pelles  cried  : 
'  Let  nobody  tpuch  him  but  me !  I  will  kill 
him  myself  for  killing  my  brother! ' 

"  So  the  King  caught  up  a  sword  and  rushed 
upon  Balin,  and  aimed  a  blow  at  his  head. 
Balin  caught  the  blow  on  his  own  sword,  but 
his  sword  broke  with  the  force  of  it,  and  fell 
in  pieces  on  the  floor.  Then  Balin  dashed  at 
the  crowd  of  knights  in  front  of  him,  and  broke 
through  it,  and  ran  into  another  room,  and  the 
King  followed  him.  And  Balin  went  on  into 
another  room,  and  so  on  from  room  to  room, 
hoping  somewhere  to  find  a  weapon,  and  the 
King  followed  close  upon  him  to  kill  him. 

"  Then  Balin  came  into  a  great  chamber 
that  was  half-darkened,  but  he  could  see  that 
it  was  hung  all  around  with  rich  tapestries  and 
curtains.  And  there  was  a  bed,  and  in  the  bed 
lay  an  old  man,  with  a  long,  white  beard.  He 
lay  as  still  as  if  he  were  dead,  but  there  was 


King  Arthur's  Gravestone         291 

color  in  his  cheeks  and  his  lips  were  red.  Be- 
side the  bed  was  a  table,  all  of  gold  and  silver, 
put  together  in  strange  and  beautiful  patterns. 
On  the  table  stood  a  spear.  A  little  stream  of 
blood  flowed  from  the  point  of  the  spear  and 
ran  down  the  shaft  to  the  table.  And  where 
the  blood  touched  them  the  gold  and  the  sil- 
ver of  the  table  shone  brighter  than  anywhere 
else. 

"  Balin  had  no  time  to  think  of  all  these 
things,  but  he  saw  them,  and  afterward  he  re- 
membered them.  Most  of  all  he  saw  the  spear. 
He  ran  to  it  and  took  it  in  his  hand  and  turned 
upon  King  Pelles,  who  was  close  behind  him. 
As  the  King  came  on  Balin  struck  him  with 
the  spear  and  gave  him  a  deep  wound  in  the 
side,  and  the  King  fell  down  as  if  he  were  dead. 

"  But  as  he  struck  that  stroke  Balin  felt  the 
floor  tremble  under  him.  It  shook  so  that  he 
could  scarcely  stand  upon  it.  He  dropped 
the  spear  and  it  fell  with  a  noise  like  thunder. 
He  looked  around  him  and  the  walls  seemed 
to  be  shaking  and  moving.  Then  he  heard 
noises  of  crashing  and  splitting,  and  he  felt  the 
floor  going  away  from  under  him.  A  great 
burst  of  light  came  into  the  chamber  through 
the  roof,  that  opened  and  fell  apart.  The 
thick  stone  walls  tottered  and  toppled,  there 
was  a  mighty  roar  and  crash,  as  the  whole 
castle  fell  into  a  formless  heap,  and  then 


292        The  Coiirt  of  King  Arthur 

a  great  cloud  of  dust  rose  slowly  in  the  air 
and  was  borne  far  off  by  a  hot  wind  that 
blew  across  the  pile  of  ruins  where  the  castle 
had  stood.  Balin  felt  the  downward  rush,  as 
he  sank  with  the  floor ;  he  saw  the  roof  split 
above  him  and  the  walls  whirled  and  tumbled 
about  him,  and  he  heard  the  crash  of  the 
shattered  stone  and  timbers,  but  he  did  not  see 
the  cloud  of  dust  or  feel  the  hot  wind. 

"  For  three  days  Balin  saw  and  heard  and 
felt  nothing.  Then  he  felt  the  touch  of  a  hand 
and  heard  a  voice  say  to  him  softly :  '  Balin.' 
He  opened  his  eyes  and  saw  a  face  with  a  long 
beard  bending  over  him.  It  was  Merlin. 
'  Balin,'  said  Merlin  again,  '  it  is  time  for  you 
to  leave  this  place.  I  have  brought  a  horse  for 
you.  Get  up  and  come  away.' 

"  Balin  was  so  sore  and  stiff  from  lying  on 
the  stones  for  those  three  days  that  he  could 
scarcely  move,  but  he  rose  and  looked  around. 
'  Do  you  know,'  said  Merlin,  '  what  you  have 
done?' 

"  '  I  know,'  said  Balin,  '  that  I  killed  a  mur- 
derer. Then  King  Pelles  followed  me  through 
the  rooms  of  the  castle,  and  I  know  that  at  last 
I  found  a  spear  and  took  it  and  turned  upon 
him  and  wounded  him  with  it.  That  is  all  that 
I  have  done.  After  that  the  castle  all  fell  down, 
but  surely  I  did  not  do  that.' 

" '  Yes,'  Merlin  answered,  '  you  did  that  and 


King  Arthur's  Gravestone         293 

more  than  that.  Do  you  know  what  this  place 
is,  and  who  King  Pelles  is  ?  Do  you  know  who 
that  old  man  was  who  lay  in  the  bed  in  that 
chamber  where  you  found  the  spear?  That 
was  Joseph  of  Arimathaea.  It  was  he  who 
buried  the  Christ  after  He  was  crucified.  Long 
after  that  he  came  into  England  and  brought 
with  him  the  Holy  Grail,  the  cup  in  which  he 
caught  the  blood  of  the  Christ  when  He  was  on 
the  cross.  If  it  had  not  been  for  the  Holy 
Grail  Joseph  would  have  been  dead  hundreds 
of  years  ago.  He  is  not  seen  among  men  any 
more,  but  he  still  lives,  and  he  will  not  go  out 
of  the  world  till  the  coming  of  the  best  knight 
of  all  the  world.  The  Grail  was  here  in  this 
castle,  and  it  has  kept  Joseph  alive  all  these 
years.  King  Pelles  is  his  descendant  and  he  is 
the  keeper  of  the  Grail.  And  that  spear  with 
which  you  wounded  his  side  was  the  very  spear 
of  the  Roman  soldier  who  pierced  the  side  of 
the  Saviour  on  the  cross.' 

"'Is  he  dead,  then— King  Pelles?'  Balin 
asked. 

" '  No/  Merlin  answered,  '  he  is  not  dead,  but 
he  will  never  be  cured  of  that  wound  that  you 
gave  him  till  the  best  knight  of  the  world 
comes.  He  will  cure  him  with  the  blood  that 
flows  from  the  point  of  the  spear.  It  was  be- 
cause you  struck  him  with  that  spear  that  the 
tastiefell;  and  because  you  struck  him  with 


294        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

that  spear,  too,  the  whole  land  here  is  waste 
and  worthless,  and  it  will  be  desolate  and 
worthless  till  the  best  knight  of  all  the  world 
comes  and  heals  the  King's  wound.' 

"  Then  Balin  left  Merlin  and  rode  on  his  way. 
And  as  he  passed  along  he  saw  that  nothing 
grew  in  the  fields.  If  there  were  flowers  they 
were  old  and  faded  and  dead,  and  they  hung 
down  on  their  dead  stalks.  The  earth  looked 
arid  and  hot,  and  where  there  was  grass  it  was 
shrivelled  and  brown  and  dried,  as  if  the  blaz- 
ing sun  of  a  whole  summer  had  shone  on  it, 
with  never  any  rain  or  any  dew.  A  hot  wind 
blew  everywhere  and  caught  up  the  fine,  dry 
dust  and  sand,  so  that  they  sometimes  almost 
hid  the  burning  sun  and  made  it  look  more  red 
and  cruel ;  and  the  dust  and  sand  cut  against 
Balin's  face  and  covered  him  and  his  horse  till 
they  were  of  the  color  of  the  dead  fields.  There 
was  no  water  anywhere,  and  no  shade,  for  the 
same  hot  wind  tore  the  brown,  wrinkled  leaves 
off  the  trees  and  mixed  them  with  the  dust  and 
sand.  Broken  branches  of  the  trees  themselves 
swayed  in  the  wind,  and  other  trees  were  split 
down  their  trunks  to  the  roots,  or  shone  with  a 
ghostly  white,  where  the  bark  had  been  torn 
off,  as  if  lightning  had  struck  them.  Balin  saw 
few  people.  Now  and  then  an  old  man  or  an 
old  woman — they  all  seemed  to  be  old — sat  at 
the  door  of  a  poor,  shattered  house.  None  of 


King  Arthur's  Gravestone         295 

them  was  doing  anything,  and  they  all  looked 
upon  the  ground  with  sad,  worn,  helpless,  dull 
faces.  Yet  some  of  them,  as  Balin  passed, 
looked  up  at  him,  and  a  little  cold  light,  like 
anger,  came  into  their  eyes,  as  if  they  knew 
that  it  was  he  who  had  made  them  so  wretched. 

"  You  may  believe  that  Balin  did  not  care  to 
stay  in  this  country,  and  that  he  rode  through 
it  and  out  of  it  as  fast  as  he  could.  When  he 
was  away  from  it  he  rode  more  slowly.  He 
was  thinking  of  all  the  strange  things  that  he 
had  seen  and  done  since  he  left  King  Arthur's 
court.  He  could  not  see  that  he  had  done  any 
wrong  in  killing  the  murderer  Garion,  or  in 
wounding  King  Pelles,  yet  he  felt  sad  because 
of  all  the  harm  that  had  come  because  he 
struck  that  blow  with  that  spear.  He  could 
not  understand  how  that  one  blow  could  do  so 
much  harm.  Neither  can  you  understand  it,  I 
think,  and  neither  can  I. 

"  Yon  must  remember  that  it  was  the  castle 
of  the  Holy  Grail  where  Balin  had  been,  and 
that  King  Pelles  was  the  keeper  of  the  Holy 
GraiL  Wherever  you  find  the  Holy  Grail, 
there  you  will  always  find  wonder  and  mystery 
— things  that  you  do  not  understand  and  things 
that  you  will  never  understand.  When  we 
think  and  talk  and  hear  of  the  Holy  Grail,  it 
seems  to  me  always  that  we  see  through  a  mist 
and  hear  from  far  off.  We  can  see  and  hear  a 


296        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

great  deal,  but  we  can  clearly  make  out  only 
a  little. 

"  So  Balin  rode  on  his  way  puzzled  and  sad. 
And  after  a  time  he  met  an  old  man,  who  said 
to  him :  '  Knight,  if  you  ride  this  way  you  will 
come  to  a  castle  where  you  will  have  trouble 
and  danger.  It  will  be  better  for  you  if  you 
turn  back.' 

"  And  Balin  answered  :  '  I  can  have  no  worse 
trouble  than  I  have  had  already,  and  I  do  not 
fear  danger.  I  will  go  on.' 

"  So  he  went  on,  and  soon  he  came  to  the 
castle.  And  a  crowd  of  ladies  came  out  to 
meet  him  and  to  welcome  him,  and  they  led 
him  into  the  hall  and  put  him  at  the  table,  and 
there  were  feasting  and  singing  and  dancing, 
and  Balin  began  to  wonder  what  danger  it  was 
that  he  had  to  fear.  Then  the  lady  of  the  castle 
said  to  him  :  '  Knight,  before  you  go  from  here 
you  must  fight  with  a  knight  who  keeps  an 
island  near  by.  Every  knight  must  do  so  who 
passes  this  way.  It  is  the  custom  of  the  castle.' 

" '  It  is  a  bad  custom,'  said  Balin,  '  but  I  will 
fight  with  your  knight,  if  I  must.  If  he  kills 
me,  I  am  willing.  I  have  done  harm  enough 
and  I  have  had  sorrow  and  trouble  enough.  I 
do  not  care  much  about  my  own  life.  And  so, 
if  I  am  to  fight  with  him,  let  me  go  and  do  it 
now.' 

"  Then  one  of  the  ladies  said  :  '  Sir  Knight 


King  Arthur's  Gravestone        297 

jour  shield  is  small,  and  it  looks  old  and  bat- 
tered. Let  me  give  you  a  larger  and  better 
one." 

"So  Balin  took  the  shield  that  she  brought 
him.  and  they  led  him  to  a  place  where  there 
was  a  boat.  And  he  and  his  horse  went  into 
the  boat  and  were  floated  over  to  the  island. 
And  when  Balin  had  landed  and  was  on  his 
horse  he  saw  coming  the  knight  with  whom  he 
was  to  fight.  They  put  their  spears  in  rest  and 
dashed  against  each  other  and  both  of  them 
were  thrown  from  their  horses.  Then  they 
rose  and  began  the  battle  with  swords.  It  was 
a  long  and  a  hard  battle.  Balin  had  nerer 
fought  with  so  strong  a  knight  as  this  before. 
The  fight  when  he  and  his  brother  Balan 
caught  King  Ryence  and  drove  away  his  men 
seemed  to  him  nothing  compared  with  this. 
He  grew  angry  that  the  other  knight  should 
stand  against  him  so  long,  and  he  fought  as  he 
had  never  fought  before.  The  other  knight 
fought  harder  too,  and  each  of  them  had  many 
wounds. 

"  At  last  the  knight  of  the  island  sank  down 
upon  the  ground  and  said :  •  Yon  have  beaten 
me,  Sir  Knight.  I  cannot  fight  any  more,  and 
I  cannot  live  long  with  the  wounds  that  yon 
have  given  me.  I  do  not  care  for  that.  I  am 
kept  here  by  a  cruel  custom,  and  some  knight 
would  kill  me  in  the  end.  And  more  than  that, 


298         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

I  have  lost  my  brother.  I  should  never  see 
him  again,  kept  here  away  from  the  world,  and 
without  my  brother  I  do  not  care  to  live.' 

"Then  Balin  said:  'Sir  Knight,  you  have 
killed  me,  too.  Tell  me  who  you  are,  for  I 
have  never  fought  before  with  so  good  a 
knight.' 

"And  the  other  answered  :  '  I  am  Balan,  the 
brother  of  Sir  Balin,  one  of  the  best  knights  of 
the  world.' 

"  And  when  Balin  heard  that,  being  weak 
with  his  wounds  and  with  long  fighting,  he 
fainted  and  fell  back  upon  the  ground.  Th':n 
Balan  crept  up  to  him  and  took  off  his  helmet 
and  saw  that  he  was  his  brother.  And  when 
Balin  opened  his  eyes  again  Balan  said  to  him  : 
'  Why  did  you  carry  this  strange  shield  ?  If 
you  had  carried  your  own  shield  I  should  have 
known  you  by  it.' 

"  And  Balin  answered  :  '  They  gave  it  to  me 
at  the  castle,  because  it  was  better  than  mine. 
But  tell  me  why  you  were  here  keeping  this 
island  in  this  strange  way  ?  ' 

" '  Once,'  Balan  answered,  '  the  lady  of  this 
castle  had  a  husband,  and  she  would  never  let 
him  go  away  from  her  to  any  battles  or  tourna- 
menis.  And  he  grew  tired  of  rest  and  idleness, 
and  so  they  made  this  custom — this  law — that 
every  knight  who  passed  this  way  should  fight 
with  him.  And  if  ever  any  knight  overcame 


King  Arthur's  Gravest***         299 

him,  that  knight  was  to  hold  the  island  instead 
of  him  and  keep  up  the  custom.  At  last  a 
knight  killed  him  and  held  the  island.  I  killed 
the  knight  who  was  here  when  I  came,  and  so  I 
held  the  place,  and  so  you  would  have  held  it 
if  jou  had  killed  me  and  saved  your  own  life.' 

44  Then  the  lady  of  the  castle  came,  and  Balan 
told  her  that  they  were  brothers  and  that  they 
had  killed  each  other,  and  he  asked  her  to  have 
them  buried  there  together.  Then  Balan  died, 
and  Balin  died  not  long  after. 

"In  the  morning  Merlin  came.  He  found 
Balin's  sword  and  took  off  its  hilt  and  put  an- 
other hilt  on  it.  The  new  hilt  was  rich  and 
beautiful,  with  gold  and  jewels  on  it,  and  when 
Merlin  had  put  it  on  the  blade  he  said :  '  There 
is  no  sword  in  the  world  more  wonderful  than 
this,  except  King  Arthur's  sword,  Excalibur. 
But  no  knight  shall  use  it  now,  till  the  one  best 
knight  of  all  the  world  comes  to  take  it.' 

44  Then  Merlin  drove  the  sword  into  a  great 
stone,  and  he  wrote  on  the  stone  that  no  knight 
should  ever  draw  this  sword  out  of  the  stone 
except  the  one  to  whom  it  should  belong,  the 
best  knight  of  the  world.  Then  he  pushed  the 
stone  out  into  the  river  and  it  floated  like 
wood.  And  for  many  years,  the  story  says, 
the  stone  floated  on  the  river,  and  at  last  it 
drifted  down  to  CameloL 

-  Now  //this  is  Camelot  where  we  are,  tluu 


300        The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

I  believe  that  the  stone  we  saw  this  morning  is 
that  very  stone.  And  if  that  is  the  very  stone, 
then  the  letters  on  it,  that  we  could  not  read, 
are  the  letters  that  Merlin  put  there,  which  said 
that  no  knight  but  the  best  knight  of  all  the 
world  should  ever  draw  this  sword." 

"  And  what  about  the  sword  ?  "  Helen  asked. 

"  The  best  knight  of  all  the  world  came  and 
drew  it  out  and  carried  it  away." 

"  But  wasn't  Lancelot  the  best  knight  in  the 
world,  and  couldn't  he  draw  the  sword?" 

"  Yes,  for  a  long  time  Lancelot  was  the  best 
knight  in  the  world ;  but  the  letters  on  the 
stone  meant  that  the  knight  to  draw  the  sword 
'must  be  the  best  knight  who  ever  was  or  ever 
would  be,  and  Lancelot  was  not  that.  It  was 
not  till  long  afterward  that  a  knight  came  who 
could  draw  the  sword." 


When  Balin  had  brought  Ryence  as  a  prison- 
er to  Camelot  the  last  of  the  great  enemies  of 
King  Arthur  stood  helpless  before  him.  There 
was  no  one  left  to  stand  against  him  now  and  to 
say  that  he  should  not  be  King.  His  lords  and 
his  knights  and  his  people  all  knew  him  now ; 
yes,  and  his  enemies  knew  him  too.  They  knew 
that  he  had  the  right  to  reign  over  England. 
They  knew  that  he  had  the  right,  first,  because 


King  Arthur's  Gravestone         301 

he,  the  new  King,  was  the  son  of  the  old  King, 
Uther  Pendragon.  Better  than  this,  they  knew 
that  he  had  it  because  God  had  chosen  him 
when  he  drew  the  sword  out  of  the  stone  at  St. 
Paul's  long  ago.  Best  of  all,  they  knew  that 
he  was  the  true  King  because  he  ruled  faithfully 
and  justly  and  well.  The  wrongs  that  had 
been  before  he  came  were  ended,  the  poor  lived 
and  worked  in  peace,  the  honest  rich  man  knew 
that  his  wealth  was  safe.  If  the  peasant  was 
true  to  the  King,  the  King  cared  for  him  and 
guarded  him  as  well  as  the  lord.  If  the  noble- 
man did  wrong  he  was  judged  and  punished 
as  sternly  as  the  peasant.  Arthur's  people 
believed  that  there  had  never  been  before 
such  a  great  and  noble  King  as  theirs,  and 
they  were  right.  In  his  time  no  knight  was 
thought  to  know  what  true  knighthood  was 
till  he  had  been  at  Arthur's  court,  and  after 
his  time,  for  a  thousand  years,  kings  and 
knights  looked  back  to  him  and  to  his  court 
as  to  copies  of  all  that  was  best  for  themselves 
to  be. 

There  are  many  more  stories  than  these  that 
I  have  told  you  of  King  Arthur,  of  Queen 
Guinevere,  of  Sir  Lancelot,  of  Sir  Gawain, 
and  of  the  other  knights.  There  are  enough 
of  them  to  fill  many  and  many  books  such  as 
this.  I  should  like  to  think  that  sometime  I 
might  tell  you  more  of  them.  If  the  reading 


3O2         The  Court  of  King  Arthur 

of  these  proves  half  as  pleasant  to  you  as  the 
telling  of  them  has  been  to  me,  1  trust  that  I 
may  do  so.  Here,  for  the  present,  our  jour 
ney  and  the  stories  of  it  must  pause.  I  have 
done  as  well  as  I  hoped  to  do  if  you  turn  away 
from  these  stories  with  as  much  regret  as  we 
felt  when  we  turned  away  from  the  land  of 
King  Arthur's  birth  and  left  behind  us  the 
sweet  air  and  the  great,  glorious  rocks,  the 
cries  of  the  sea  -  birds,  the  roar  and  the  dash 
of  the  water,  and  all  the  sights  and  the  sounds 
of  the  Cornish  shore  and  the  Cornish  sea. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


NOV   71983 

RECEIVED 

SEP    61983 

CIRC.  DEH.  U«L 


Form  L9-Series  444 


3  1158  00874  3808^ 


